A Rather Unconventional Definition of Love
by Ireth Melwasul
Summary: Amalia "Mal" Moore has been faced with unpleasant experiences throughout her life: she fell in love with an idiot, her best friend betrayed her and got pregnant of said idiot. In a dramatic turn of events Mal is forced to get involved against her will and is faced with something she swore she'd never let come into her life again: love. Maleval, AU.
1. Prologue

"_Come again?" _

Leila sighed and clasped her hands together just above her navel; she didn't dare look at her best friend because she knew she'd be disappointed. Even after years of knowing each other she still couldn't bear the idea of failing her; and Leila knew that right now, she had let her down.

"I am pregnant," Leila repeated carefully, this time she said it slowly, almost caressing the syllables as she uttered them out of her mouth. Then she looked up and glanced at Mal and tried to read her features.

Mal was blank. She went on.

"I know you're disappointed, and I _know _you warned me about him and I'm sorry… God, Mal. I'm so sorry; I should've listened to you..." Leila was about to cry, her vision was blurry from unshed tears that were seconds away from rolling down her face "Do you hate me now?"

Mal had every reason to hate her. First, she had slept with Stefan; Mal had liked him a few years ago and things didn't end up well between them. Stefan had cheated on her and said some pretty nasty things to make it look like it all had been her fault; Mal was devastated because all that time she had believed Stefan was the one. When Stefan tried to make advances with her, well, she obviously didn't tell Mal.

Truth was she had always sort of liked Stefan too and couldn't understand why in the world Stefan would prefer Mal over her when she was clearly not his type; he was always going after blonde girls with miniskirts and Mal… Mal wasn't blonde, her hair was brown and she didn't wear miniskirts, in fact, she hardly ever wore skirts at all. She was more into dresses and trousers. So when Stefan finally made it a point that he was interested in her and not Mal anymore, the world made some sense.

Leila was reluctant at first, but he was so charming she eventually surrendered. The first time they slept together guilt ate her alive, but as time kept passing and they kept fucking, she learned to shut her conscience down. Months rolled past them carelessly and Leila was happy, she was aware it was a no-strings-attached kind of relationship and had been totally fine with it until she heard Stefan had found someone new. She couldn't take it and in her seek for comfort had run to Mal, spilling everything she'd tried to keep from her.

It didn't surprise her that Mal suspected something was going on between them; she had always been too perceptive for her own good. What did surprise her was that Mal didn't hate her right away.

"_I hate him for what he did to me, but hate is all that remains. You, on the other hand, you're well aware of what an idiot he can be and I care more about our friendship than I care about the nonsense you've been doing. Just be careful, because I won't be there to fix your mess, Leila"._

"_So you don't hate me?" _

"_Of course I don't; but that doesn't mean I'm okay with it. You are my best friend and what you did is definitely not something a BEST friend would do… I can barely look at you right now; I don't want to be with you at all actually."_

Mal stayed true to her word and refused to talk to her for quite some time, but after what felt like ages of frigidness between them and of Leila thinking Mal would never forgive her, Mal approached her with a smile on her face and hugged her. Leila stopped seeing Stefan, it was the least she could do; and that in return helped a lot in her relationship with Mal, whose trust she was slowly trying to regain.

That had been three months ago, and now, now she was currently telling her best friend she was pregnant with the child of a man she supposedly didn't see –or fuck, anymore.

"H –how can you be pregnant? How could you be that stupid, Leila?" Mal finally spoke, her unnatural green eyes glimmered with something Leila knew was anger –no, it was pure wrath. The brown haired woman was about to let hell break loose and Leila thanked God they were in her apartment and not in some public place –she had thought about breaking the news to her in some coffee shop or nearby park to stop Mal from making a scene, but she needed to hear whatever her best friend had to say, even if it was not nice at all–.

"You _promised _you wouldn't see him ever again! You promised! I believed in you; how could you do this to me?" Mal's voice was cracking.

"You said you hated him!" Leila knew that wasn't the right thing to say but she needed something to come in her aid and that was the first thing that came to her already crumbling mind.

"I _hate _him, but I _loved _you. You had the nerve to lie to me again; and I was stupid enough to trust you _again_… You know how much it hurt me the first time; how much I hate being lied to and you did it anyway! For God's sake, Leila; am I that unimportant to you? So meaningless you chose that sorry excuse of a man over our friendship?" then it happened. Mal cried…

Mal never cried, the only times she'd seen her doing it was when her dog died and when the Stefan mess happened. Now Mal was crying because of her and it broke her heart. She had caused her pain again.

"It meant nothing to me; we just ran into each other, we were inebriated… You don't know how truly sorry I am, Mal…"

"It meant nothing but it got you pregnant. And you're right, I don't know how sorry you are and I don't happen to care to know either. I once told you I wouldn't be there to fix your mess, and I meant it. I still sustain my word. _This _is your fault, and I do hate you now… I can't forgive this."

Mal didn't say anything else to her after she abandoned her apartment, not in the next nine months.

Leila knew she'd lost her best friend.

The day her waters broke was one of the most terrifying ones for her. She was alone; her father had died when she was a teenager and she had never met her mother. Stefan didn't care about the baby and he made that point clear to her; and Mal was not going to show up. She was going to have to deliver this baby alone and that thought scared her to death.

After hours of excruciating pain from pushing, her baby girl was born at dawn. Leila held her in her arms and cried out of happiness, sadness and fear. She had read somewhere that the colour of the baby's eyes didn't settle until after some time had passed, but in that moment, her baby had the most beautiful blue eyes she'd ever seen and God, she loved her.

This girl in her arms had cost her a lot of things, but looking at her in that very moment Leila couldn't bring herself to regret any of it; she wasn't alone anymore. Even though the delivery room was currently full with nurses, Leila felt like it was only her and her baby until she felt someone grab her shoulder.

"Sweetheart, what are you going to name her?" an older nurse asked with a gentle smile on her face.

Leila looked out the window, the first rays of sun began to peek out from behind the skyscrapers in the city and she knew what her baby's name would be.

"Aurora, her name is Aurora."


	2. Breaking the News

Amalia Moore's life wasn't complicated, not really. She had a job she half liked but was good at, pretty damn good actually –she got promoted to editor-in-chief a few weeks ago; on weekends she would go out for a run in the morning, then she'd go back to her apartment to take a shower and then focus on her work again. It was a simple routine that she was happy to stick to most of the time, and whenever she got bored to the brink of exhaustion, she would grab the remote and turn on her TV –something good had to be on every now and then.

Although Mal had her ways of fighting boredom she hardly ever gave herself the opportunity to get bored or to become lethargic, there was always someone who wanted to publish something and it was her job to see that the process of doing so went perfectly fine. That Saturday evening wasn't different from the rest, she was resting in the middle of her living room, on the wooden floor to be precise, with a manuscript between her forearms. This author had a wicked sense of writing and the uncomfortable feeling of reading something she felt was written by a psycho was beginning to settle in her stomach, making her uneasy. Perhaps she should take a break.

Mal stood up and winced as she heard her back cracking in the process, how long had she been in that position she didn't know but it was now taking a toll on her poor vertebras. She picked up the manuscript and placed a bookmark in between the pages 154 and 155 before closing it; ironically enough, the second she placed the manuscript on her coffee table she felt like she should keep reading and be done with it once and for all. She kept staring at it, going back and forth between if she should either go back to the torture of reading that or to go do something else while she kept thinking it was reading what she ought to be doing.

In the end she went for the second option and walked towards her balcony, she slid the glass doors open and breathed in the chilly air. After being secluded inside her apartment for hours and breathing the same air, this felt renewing and it helped her to make her snap out of the sleepiness that had been clouding her mind for the last half hour, making her unable to fully understand what she'd been reading.

_Damn it, I'm going to have to read again the last five pages…_

Perhaps the reason why she didn't like this new story was because it reminded her of _The Sleeping Beauty_; it was a dark fantasy novel with a cursed girl, bound to sleep forever because she'd gotten trapped inside her mind, in a rather disturbing dream that would go on until the end of time, and couldn't find a way out. This girl would keep sleeping and she would also age, if they didn't find a way to wake her she would die while she slept. The plot, of course, involved the attempts of the other characters to wake her up and what the girl did inside her head. Mal had a feeling the solution would be related to something as clichéd as the famous True Love's Kiss and that it would have a happy ending…

Or maybe not; a part of her hoped it didn't because happy endings didn't happen to people on a daily basis and somehow every manuscript that came to her hands had a corny, happy ending. It was odd, she wanted to know but she didn't want to read and she refused to skip pages.

Apart from that particular prerogative, the real reason why she wasn't fond of _The Sleeping Beauty _was because that one fairy-tale had been –perhaps still was– Leila's favourite one; and she didn't like to think of Leila; Mal actually liked drowning in manuscripts just to avoid Leila from popping into her mind.

The first time Leila had hurt her she'd tried to be comprehensive, to convince herself it was her best friend and not some other woman who lacked of meaning the one who'd done it and that she deserved to be given a second shot, so Mal granted her the benefit of the doubt and decided to start fresh. Then, when it happened for a second time she just accepted that the one who lacked of meaning was in fact her own self and didn't bother to bottle up her feelings any longer.

Mal felt taken aback by how easy it was to go from loving someone to hate them without a second thought, especially when they had hurt you. She couldn't put into words what she was really feeling, but the emotional nebula that assailed her was strong enough to make her wish she'd never met Leila or Stefan in her entire life. Being betrayed like that had hardened her to the point of no return, the resentment in her heart had changed her on the outside too, she'd gotten thinner, she never smiled and she didn't say more than five words in a sentence.

When she looked at her reflection in the mirror she often wondered what the hell had happened to her, she bowed her head down and cried… but then, when she looked back into her own eyes, she discovered she didn't dislike what she had become.

Living without bothering to feel something at all had proved to be a great effort in the beginning, but then it got her a good job, a beautiful penthouse and financial stability. She didn't need friends to support her when people feared her enough to never even think of hurting her.

Mal worked her days away; she read and read and read… everything was going okay until she received a message from someone she hadn't talked to in nine months.

"_I had my baby"_

The second she finished reading the text she slammed her phone against the nearest wall. Mal didn't notice she was screaming her lungs out until her throat began to ache and she crumbled to the ground, she was shaking and highly disturbed but didn't dare to cry. It was real now, her nightmare had been born. Leila didn't have the right to text her, how dare she?

When Leila discovered she loved her baby, Mal simultaneously discovered she hated that little beast.

After the first shock of madness finished coursing through her body, a wave of curiosity washed over her. What could that baby look like? Was it as hideous as she pictured it to be? Mal didn't satisfy her curiosity.

The week that followed Leila's text had been like hell. While at work she tried to keep it together, although she wasn't a chatting person whenever someone talked to her she tried to be as decent as she could, but not that week. She'd been rude to her co-workers and subsequently earned the _Maleficent _nickname.

Leila had tried to reach her several times but she ignored her every call and message; the blonde woman eventually stopped trying. Her life had been going normally until she came across that manuscript.

_The universe works against me._

Mal sighed and looked down; her entire balcony was made of glass, even the floor. Beneath her feet she could see the rest of the building, the streets full of cars and pedestrians… The eventual flickering of the traffic lights tended to ironically lessen her growing headache, so she focused on them.

Green…

Thirty seconds later it turned red.

Forty five seconds later it went green again.

Mal was particularly fond of the yellow light. She was attracted to that shade of yellow and sometimes she wished it would last longer before switching to red. She remembered Stefan liked to drive past red lights and that had almost caused an accident more than once; she used to clutch the edges of her seat and hold back the need to scream when that happened. He then would look at her with an annoyed expression on his face and say she was overreacting or that she took life too seriously.

_I would actually like to live, thank you very much_; she used to reply and he wouldn't take it any further because he knew she was right. She was always right.

Where could Stefan be, anyway? He was born to be a bad boy; Mal doubted that had changed over the years. He was the bad kind of ivy you had a hard time getting rid of; she could speak from personal experience. In fact, she wasn't sure she was free completely… whenever she believed his grip on her had loosed she found herself thinking of him again, even if the thoughts were full hatred or lacked of feeling, she thought of him.

Mal's musings were interrupted by the ringing of her phone; she checked her wrist watch and noticed it was eight o'clock. Nobody called her at that hour, well; nobody ever called her to be honest. She walked back inside with heavy steps that echoed through her living room, her pace was slow on purpose, she didn't really want to pick up the phone and talk to whoever could be calling her. If it was a business call they would dial her mobile, not her house.

Much to her disgrace and despite her intents, when she reached the kitchen the phone was still ringing. Mal glared at the phone for a couple seconds and took the opportunity to try to identify the incoming number, half hoping it would either be enough time to make her answering machine come to her aid or to recognize who it was and force herself to answer or slowly walk away, but the number didn't ring any bell and she picked up the damned phone.

"What?" she'd never been nice, no need to start now.

"Miss Moore?" a feminine voice replied on the other end of the line, Mal didn't recognize the voice either and gathered the woman had probably called the wrong number even though that woman knew her name – she kept talking anyway.

"Yes, it's me"

"Miss Moore, I'm sorry to inform you there has been an accident" the speaker made a stop and Mal couldn't feel more bewildered. _An accident? _Why would that woman call her? Who could have possibly put her as their emergency contact? Then it hit her. Leila. "You're the only one she told us to reach if something happened to her, by now I guess you know I'm talking about Leila Queen."

Mal felt like she was falling, the tile underneath her feet seemed to be cracking and letting her be swallowed by an abyss. She couldn't find her voice until later.

"W –what hospital is she at?" she tried to keep her voice smooth, but another word and she would fail.

The speaker cleared her throat "Miss Moore, I'm not calling you from any hospital. I'm calling you from Foster Care. Miss Leila died in the accident and she left her baby girl under your care…"

Mal's heart stopped beating.

"She's _what_?" Leila _what_?

A loud sigh was heard on the other side and Mal could only make her trembling legs walk toward the nearest chair, she sat down and braced herself for whatever was about to come "I'm sorry to break the news like this to you, but we needed to inform you as soon as possible. Miss Leila's baby, Aurora Queen, survived the accident and we don't know about any living relatives, not even the whereabouts of her father since he's not even mentioned in the form that was handed to us from the hospital. You were Miss Leila's emergency contact and also, the godmother of her baby. We could only reach you and we need to meet you as soon as possible."

* * *

**Well hello, people! I haven't posted a multi-chaptered fic in a real long time so, bear with me! I'm currently going through semester's end, I've got 3 exams left and I'm stressed as hell, but then I got a lot of free time so I'll try to update as often as I'm able.**

**I hope this isn't too WTF for you, I'm still not sure how long this fic is going to be or where is it going to end but I'm excited to figure it out, hopefully you'll join me in this journey! (Ahem, if you read my profile then you'll know I love fluff and Maleval, so those things are coming in this fic for sure).**

**Also, I don't know if the rating is going to go up or what, I'll let you know :) Review? **


	3. King of Pain

After the phone call was over, Mal did two things:

First, she called her lawyer.

Second, she grabbed her car keys and stormed out of her apartment. There was no way she would get some sleep that night, and the sooner she managed to fix this whole debris the sooner she'd able to go back to her life and pick up the pieces of her now even more broken heart.

It wasn't fair. Leila died believing she hated her and despite months of not talking to each other she still trusted her…

_Or perhaps she hated me enough to leave me with this burden._

Mal liked the second option better because it made her feel good, less guilty and responsible; but deep down she knew it was the first one the one that was most likely to happen. She was driving like a speed demon; she didn't do any red light, she didn't stop when she was supposed to; in fact, she could have gotten arrested and she probably would since nowadays there were cameras everywhere –but she still didn't give a flying fuck. Mal pressed the accelerator further, the pull was strong enough to make her head bump slightly against the seat.

She had almost reached her destination when a raven popped out of nowhere and got in her way; she honked at it so loud Mal felt she had gone deaf. It was then, when she noticed the bird was looking at her, that Mal realized she had stopped her car, her foot pressing so hard on the brakes she could have broken them. Her breathing was ragged and her knuckles were turning white from clutching the steering wheel as if her life were on it, _what the hell had just happened?_

Eventually the raven flew away, but she kept her car still. When the cars behind her began to honk at her, Mal moved and focused back in her current situation: her ex-best friend had died, her beast was her problem now, she needed to get to the Foster Care building right away.

Mal slowed down for the rest of the drive, parking took her around ten minutes because her hands were shaking and her vision was blurry. When she opened the door to exit the car she felt like she wasn't in the real world; Mal prayed it was all nightmare she would soon wake up from, she prayed she could find herself back in her living room with that manuscript in her hands… She closed her eyes, squeezed her eyelids and took a deep breath… But nothing happened when she blinked her eyes back open, she was still in front of an old building with just one foot out of her car.

When she finally accepted she wasn't dreaming she retrieved her car keys and got out of the vehicle, then she locked the doors and walked towards the building. She'd told her lawyer to meet her there and was expecting to find her inside, but she always showed up late; it was some sort of nice surprise to actually see her talking to a lady that looked like the one to be in charge. Simultaneously, Mal took in her surroundings; from the inside the building definitely looked old, its wooden floor creaked with each step she made, the walls were upholstered with a flowery design that was somewhere between wearing off –it sort of looked stone-washed, or turning to shreds, leaving the brick exposed to the eye. Also, like most constructions in that side of the city, the building's hallways were narrow and she could see two sets of stairs going up to the next floor. Mal never really stopped to stare at the building carefully, but from what she'd seen on her way she guessed it would at least have three levels and presumably a basement where they kept toys and other things kids couldn't live without.

Near the entrance was a desk topped with papers and folders, some of them were littered all over the floor and there was a kid picking them up while another little devil kept playing with them, making the place look like a tornado had hit them. She didn't like kids; she was never going to.

Mal cleared her throat and both women turned their heads to rest their worried eyes on her.

"Amalia! It's nice to see you again, how are you?" her lawyer was named Johanna Flittle and was recognized for having her hair blue. Not many people in the business dared to dye their hair with such an unnatural colour, especially not when they were in their late fifties… but the woman was an amazing lawyer and if her excellence served as an excuse to forgive her odd ways, so be it.

"I'm…" Mal pondered with how many different words she could end that sentence with, but in the end none of them could actually describe how she was. She was angry, preoccupied, about to go utterly insane, anxious, weak… "I'm fine" lying was the best option, and Mal had enough self to control to make her voice sound serious and calm.

Flittle scanned her face and decided not to mention she probably looked anything but fine, Mal fixed her eyes on her and silently requested for her to fill her in, Flittle nodded. "Well, it seems that Miss Queen named you Aurora's godmother the day she was born, and I assume that you obviously didn't know about this. Amalia, she made this whole procedure with a lawyer, and you're now legally her daughter's tutor."

"I'm aware of it now."

"Would you like to see her?" the other woman asked, Mal had completely forgotten about her. She was asking her if she wanted to see _that _thing, really? If looks could kill that woman would've been dead by now. Why didn't she erase that stupid grin from her face? Couldn't she tell she was more than annoyed with this whole situation? "No, I don't want to see her."

The woman didn't see that coming; her smile was gone and was replaced with a flummoxed expression.

"I didn't introduce myself, I'm Caroline Thistletwit," she said sounding a lot less friendly "it was actually me the one who spoke to you on the phone. I know this situation is awful for everybody, but the baby girl is an orphan and you're the only family she has left. Now, would you please come with me and at least meet her?"

Caroline Thistletwit didn't give her the chance to answer; the moment she stopped speaking she stretched her hand and closed her fingers around her wrist, leading further inside the building. Mal didn't like being touched and she freed herself from Thistletwit's grip right after they entered a pink room with three cribs inside. It would have been completely silent were it not for the gentle giggles and babbles echoing in the room. Mal stood frozen under the door frame, she watched as the woman with blonde curly hair approached a crib that was placed in the end of the room, near a window that faced the streets.

"She's here," said Thistletwit "come, she won't bite you…" then she smiled.

Mal approached against her better judgment and finally looked at the girl inside the crib. Aurora was blonde, she had deep blue eyes and white skin. She didn't resemble her father at all; Aurora was the spitting image of her mother. But she didn't look like a newborn…

"How old is she?" the question left her lips easily.

"Almost two years. She's spent right now, that's why she's lying down… But a few hours ago she was jumping on her mattress while grabbing the crib's bars. She's quite an energetic girl" _she's so hideous I almost feel sorry for her_, thought Mal with her eyes still fixed on the baby.

So she had ignored Leila for two years. She'd lost the track of time and had stupidly believed the little beastie wouldn't ever grow up… Oh, how hectic could life turn?

"Would you like to hold her?" _what?_

"Of course not. Where's Flittle? There's stuff we need to settle down" Mal walked away from Aurora, ignoring the small smile the girl was dedicating her in her sleepy state. When she was about to exit the room, she heard Thistletwit say "you make it sound like it is all a business transaction" and Mal answered "that's exactly what this is."

Flittle talked to a lot of people, Mal wasn't really paying attention to what they said, she paid her lawyer to do the talking after all; so she just sat quietly, watching their mouths move until Thistletwit, along with a man she hadn't noticed had joined them at some point in the night, exited the small living room they had entered at least two hours ago. Flittle accommodated the many papers that were resting on the coffee table in front of them and gave a tired sigh.

"Tell me."

"Leila had a life insurance. It will cover Aurora's needs for several years; the girl worked really hard to pay for it. If you decide to take her in, you'll be assigned a caseworker who's going to make an adoption home study, they'll meet with you in your apartment and determine if you're ready to adopt. Then, after doing all the background checks and your home study is satisfyingly completed, you'll get approved to adopt. Then you'll have to get ready for the placement of Aurora in your family, since you don't have any close relatives either that should be easy. After that the adoption will be legalized and she'll be completely yours. Of course, given the fact that Leila explicitly chose you, this whole process should be easier." Her lawyer spoke considerably fast and she tried her best not to get lost, but Flittle seemed anxious as well and her speech speed increased with every passing second. By the time she was finished Mal just nodded out of instinct.

"It's up to you, Amalia…" Flittle added "You don't have to do anything you don't want to do."

Flittle was right. She didn't have to do anything. Aurora was her responsibility by paper, not by choice and she still could fix that. They would find her a suitable home, that beast was bound to be loved and she knew that… just not by her.

"Good. I'm leaving" Mal stood up and checked she hadn't left anything on the couch. She had left her purse at home and just brought her wallet, there was not much she could leave behind but she checked out of habit. She was one step away from exiting when she heard Flittle fluttering about the room.

"Amalia…" Flittle called.

"Yes?"

"I know it's none of my business, but you grew up an orphan too. Do you… Do you really want to leave her here?"

She wanted to answer that question, but she couldn't. She wanted to punch Flittle for being so bold, but she didn't. Her parent's had died in an accident when she was eight years old; she had been abandoned against her will too.

Mal lost control for a second, she didn't like to think about that day. A spark of hope flashed in Flittle's eyes and Mal knew that she had accidentally let her walls down; Flittle had seen not the fearless, determined woman she always showed to the entire world, but the one that was scared and above everything, insecure of what to do next.

"You have a week to decide. Call me when you make up your mind, alright?" Flittle abandoned the room before she did, leaving her alone with her changing mind and Mal couldn't stand it. She needed to shut herself down.

* * *

Albeit Mal felt like she had regained control of her body, her mind was still in chaos. She couldn't afford to risk her own life and other people's by driving, so she walked to the nearest pub. It was 1 a.m. when she found a decent place, an open-microphone café club to be precise. It smelled of cigarettes, alcohol and… perhaps incense. There was a man outside, a guard she presumed, who looked at her from head to toe and raised an eyebrow. For the first time in the night Mal addressed her current clothing situation; she was wearing skinny jeans, a black tank top and nude flats –she wasn't supposed to leave her apartment, so she dressed as comfortable as she could. The night was cold and she looked ready to go summer partying, G_od_.

Mal waited, but the man didn't say anything and she took the opportunity to walk inside without even looking at him; she found an empty spot on the bar and ordered a Typhoon… then another; as she drank she saw there was a rather small stage with a spotlight, in the middle rested a stool and a microphone; the bar was located near the stage and part of the spotlight hit her face, it didn't really bothered her because she was there to drink, not to watch a fucking show.

The brown haired woman let her thoughts unravel, gave them free reign and somewhere in the middle of that inner storm she drank more than she would've liked. She was starting to feel tipsy when a masculine voice drew her attention. Mal looked at him, he was tall –taller than her perhaps, his hair was as black as the inky night sky and his skin was pale; his shirt wasn't fully buttoned and part of his chest was exposed, she thought he looked rather mysterious and would probably sing about something dark.

Good, she wasn't in the mood for corny songs. She hardly ever was...

"Hello, goodnight… I'm Diaval" he greeted.

He half smiled and Mal could hear the stomping of his foot against the wooden stage floor, setting the compass. Then he began to play his guitar and Mal could immediately recognize the opening chords. This Diaval guy was going to play _King of Pain_ by The Police. She liked that song.

Just like in the song, Mal felt like a butterfly trapped in a spider's web.

When Diaval stopped singing Mal looked at him again and noticed he was looking back at her. Now that they were both exchanging glares she thought it was time for her to leave.

* * *

**Well, this took longer than I expected to be honest. I studied all day so writing this took some extra effort. To Diosa Luna, here's your Diaval! **

**Thank you all for either leaving a review, favoriting or following, means a lot :)**


	4. Perhaps I Could Have A Friend

**The A/N is coming here now! Well, I certainly hope you like this chapter more (I'm saying it because I only got one review and, guys, believe it or not, getting reviews is extremely motivational)! That was my rant. I'm sorry... I'm just emotional today, I guess.**

**Now, there's a rather big time gap in this chapter because I wanted to speed things up. I have a lot of ideas, and they're a mess and perhaps sticking to the original sketch would make this fic longer that I would like to write, so yeah (I need to bring Stefan back). What else?**

**I do not own the characters... and I'm hungry. I want chocolate chip cookies but I'm on a diet (aren't we all, though? Maybe that's why I'm emotional now that I think about it...). Okay, enough...**

**Read (enjoy) and review, maybe? :)**

* * *

Mal didn't remember ordering tequila but there she was, with two empty shots in front of her. Alcohol could either make her do foolish things or it could actually bring some clarity to her fogged mind; that night she felt clearer than ever –she hated herself for that, her plan had backfired. Also, it was tequila the reason why she hadn't left the place and ordered some coffee instead –her legs were wobbly once again.

While she let alcohol fade from her system she thought of many things, Mal also realized she hadn't been given the chance to mourn properly over the loss of her best friend… she would never do it by now. When she looked back into her life she didn't deny that in spite of having lived a lonely but not so bad childhood, she would've traded anything to have her parents back. The little beast had never had a father and her mother was now dead, she probably wouldn't even remember her if it wasn't by pictures.

_I don't like children._

Mal repeated to herself. It was not in her nature, she didn't have that maternal instinct most women had. For starters, she lacked of the most important asset a mother ought to possess: patience. Her patience was non-existent even with adults, now with children? She couldn't even imagine that. Then, related to her lack of equanimity when kids were involved, was her temper. She liked being in control and children were the synonym of utter disorganization. Her list could go on forever, but eventually, this little voice inside her head that alcohol didn't manage to shut up kept whispering that she owed it to Leila.

There was no way she could win in this. If she gave Aurora up she would live the rest of her life feeling like she had failed the entire world; she wasn't the one who was supposed to feel guilty but she did; and letting fate do with her daughter whatever it might felt ten thousandth times worse. On the other hand, if she decided to undergo this whole situation she would be signing her death sentence because it was going to drive her mad for sure. Mal knew she had a week to make up her mind, to ponder the pros and cons; but regardless of the time she'd been given her decision was practically already made, and not even by her own means entirely.

She took another sip of her espresso and whimpered when the still too hot liquid entered her mouth, she'd been buried too deep in her thoughts she forgot this coffee was practically boiling.

"They suck at temperature measuring; it's never a good idea to drink right away" Mal looked up at the one who'd spoken and wasn't surprised to see it was the musician. She just glared at him, his presence wasn't entirely annoying but she didn't want him there.

Seeing she wouldn't speak, he pushed even further.

"Cat got your tongue?"

That earned him a response.

"Perhaps you did. You talk a lot" she said with a blank expression. That seemed to be enough to scare him away, the confidence he had approached her with was now fading.

"I'll come back later, then" as suddenly as he had appeared, he was gone and he didn't come back.

The next time Mal checked her watch it was three o'clock in the morning and the bar was closing; by that time she felt sober enough to walk back to her car and drive home. She had forgotten how cold mornings could be until she stepped out the door; with just a tank top on she felt the wind freezing her to the very bone. Mal circled her arms around her torso and began to walk down the lonely streets, they might look empty but she wasn't stupid enough to believe she was alone. There was always someone lurking in the dark; and she was a woman, alone, with just her wallet. She'd taken a personal defence course a few years ago but she wasn't about to test her luck.

She sped up her pace.

Mal decided she would call Flittle on Monday; she knew the woman didn't take calls on Sundays and neither did she. It was then when Mal walked past an alley and saw a familiar face.

_The musician. What was his name, again?_

Oh, and he wasn't alone. There was another man with him, and this guy was wearing a hoodie. Since his back was to her he didn't see her scanning him, he didn't see Mal's eyes widening a bit when she noticed he was holding a pocket knife… And the musician didn't see her either, she couldn't blame him; he was under a rather stressful situation.

"Man, I got nothing, I swear…" she heard him say. The bad didn't believe him; obviously.

Mal had always been a fast thinker and was rather relieved when she noticed the building beside her was practically falling apart and there were bricks littered all around her. She slowly bent down and picked up one of them; she tried her footsteps to be as soft as possible, and as she slowly approached them she noticed the musician had seen her. Mal nodded her head but it was too late, the robber had seen the change in his victim's expression and immediately turned around to see what it was all about. Mal was close enough to smack him with the brick she was holding, but somehow failed. The musician had taken the opportunity to try to take the pocket knife away from the robber and that granted her some time; she saw his guitar lying on the floor and practically made magic to grab it and swing it as hard as she could against the robber's head.

The idiot fell limp on the ground.

"What have you done with my beautiful guitar?" he complained, picking it up from where Mal had thrown it away after she'd hit the other man.

"Would you rather I let him attack you?" Mal raised an eyebrow.

"Perhaps…" _wow_.

"Enough. I saved your life."

He bowed his head down and sighed.

"You're right. I'm sorry… I owe you a drink in the very least" Mal barely smirked and looked at him in the eye before asking "What was your name again?"

"Diaval."

"Well, Diaval," Mal decided she rather liked the way his name felt on her tongue "keep your drink. I've had enough alcohol for a year. Call the police."

Mal turned around and walked away, she knew she'd never see him again and was totally fine with it. She had bigger issues to take care of.

* * *

When she woke up on Monday she was still half asleep when she called Flittle.

"_I'll do it."_

Her lawyer didn't say much but Mal could hear the relief in her voice as she explained her how they were going to proceed.

Then months flew by.

She always had the caseworker chasing her tail, making questions and driving her mad. When it was all over and Aurora _finally _started to live with her, Mal couldn't sleep. The little beast had her own bedtime and didn't put any effort in being obedient. Her first real word had been "bird" and when she discovered what running was she never stopped doing it.

Mal felt like a zombie at work, and if not liking people made her an awful person then lacking of sleep turned her into a demon or –her co-workers now referred to her as Maleficent only now– , but still she had managed to finish the manuscript she'd been reading a year ago, when she received that phone call. It was now a best seller and Mal had bought her own copy… It had a happy ending, but it didn't bother her.

It took several months for Mal to feel like she was finally putting her life back together and to find a routine to follow once again.

In the mornings she would wake up and eat with breakfast with Aurora, then she would drop her at the daycare and the nanny she hired would pick her up. By seven –or sometimes eight o'clock– she'd be home, she would give Aurora her dinner and then read her a bedtime story so she could go back to work.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning when she decided to take the three-year-old Aurora out, the little beastie had always liked going to the park. She enjoyed watching the birds and playing with other people's pets. Mal would never admit it out loud but she had grown pretty fond of the girl, she'd dare to say she loved her. She was currently sitting on a bench, watching Aurora run after a dove when a pretty melody carried by the soft summer breeze reached her ears.

It couldn't be.

"Aurora?" she called and the little girl turned her head immediately, resting her pretty blue eyes on her.

"Yes?" her voice was high pitched but sweet, she also talked a lot. Her teachers said she talked more than most kids in her class, actually. Mal had only laughed and nodded; she could laugh now, even if it was only for a couple seconds.

"Come. There's something I need to know" Mal stood up and took Aurora's hand in hers; they both walked under the tall trees, enjoying the way their long shadows sheltered them from the sun. The wind kept the melody dancing about them and made it a lot easier for her to follow it, Aurora was completely unaware of everything, she just kept walking and staring up at the high tree tops.

Her beastie liked wearing sun dresses and sandals; she also liked ice cream and tended to change her clothes whenever she discovered that she and Mal weren't matching. That Sunday the both wore white; Aurora a dress and Mal a plain white shirt, it was enough to keep the little girl happy and fresh, it was one of the hottest days Mal had ever lived to witness to be honest. They soon reached the fountain that was located in the middle of the park and there she found a familiar face playing the guitar.

Before she could realize what was happening Aurora let go of her hand and ran straight to the man sitting on the edge of the fountain with the case of his guitar open at his feet so people who walked by could tip him. Mal wondered why she had gone there in the first place, she thought she'd never see him again and now that she was actually there –that she knew it was him the one playing– she wanted to leave; too bad she couldn't leave Aurora.

The blonde girl was giggling and staring at him like she was hypnotized, but the spell was broken the second he noticed that now he actually had an audience. He hadn't changed a bit; maybe his hair was a little longer but he still wore a button up shirt –that was not buttoned properly and showed part of his chest–, jeans and leather boots; though Mal wasn't sure what shoes he'd been wearing the last time they saw each other.

"Hello, little one" he looked up, smiled and waved his hand at her. Mal barely heard Aurora say hello back to him before moving to where they were to get the beastie back.

"Hello, _you,_" Diaval said with even a bigger smile that made her want to slap it off "it's been quite some time since we last saw each other" he greeted.

Mal felt Aurora hugging her knees and she instinctively placed an arm around her "I wasn't expecting to see you again, to be honest" she was tense now.

Diaval placed a hand just above his heart, as if he'd been hit by an arrow "here I thought you were warming up to me" that line almost made her smile a little. _Almost_.

"What's your name, little girl?" he seemed to notice she didn't have anything else to say to him so he moved his focus to the girl, wasn't he clever? And Aurora, ever the people person she was, stepped forward and introduced her herself and asked for his name later. To Mal's dismay the beastie began to touch Diaval's guitar. After their last encounter Mal remembered his tantrum about his loved guitar when she'd ruined it, he loved that thing more than his own life if his last words to her were to be taken seriously, so she guessed having a kid touching it would piss him off.

"Aurora don't–" Mal warned, but Diaval waved his hand and interrupted her "It's okay, let her play with it" he was still holding it on his lap. Aurora stepped in between his long legs and with her delicate small fingers began to touch the strings. What came out could barely be called music but neither of them said anything.

When Mal decided it had been enough she suggested Aurora they should go and earned hurt looks from both Aurora and Diaval. She could see Aurora liked him; suddenly it was just the two of them laughing and talking while she just stood there like an outcast.

"Perhaps she'd like to take some guitar lessons, don't you think?"

"She's too young."

Diaval sighed "exactly. She'd learn easier, the younger the better" he said as if that were the most obvious thing in the planet.

"And _what _do you know about kids?" Not more than her perhaps, but the defiance in her voice was evident even to Aurora, who turned around to look at her a little bit scared. Diaval bowed his head down and let out a flustered laugh.

"You're right. I apologize… " he then took the strap of his guitar off and placed the instrument back inside its case, he didn't zip it closed because Aurora was still enchanted with the musical object and wanted to keep playing, instead he stood up and stopped when he was at least two steps away from Mal "You know? You never told me your name" the charming smile on his face and childish spark in his eyes made her feel like she was dealing with another kid, Mal shrugged the discomfort away.

"I didn't" it amused her to see his worked up expression.

"Won't you tell me?" Diaval pushed.

"Amalia…" Mal had decided a lot of years ago that only in serious situations she was to be called her complete name, and although they had never really established any sort of bond and she certainly didn't trust him, she thought Diaval could call her by her nickname because it felt right "but you can just call me Mal" he smirked in response.

Oh no. He thought he was special.

"Most people call me that" she said trying to put his probably already rocketing feet back on the ground. It seemed to have worked because the smug look on his face vanished and he was back to a serious –if not anxious– facial expression.

The background sound of Aurora's music playing came to a halt and the silence drew Mal's attention to the girl, who was now sitting on the edge of the fountain, watching the both of them carefully with a cute grin on her face. Diaval half turned to look at the girl too and crossed his arms.

"I didn't know you had a daughter" the words seemed to be said more to himself than to her, but Mal replied anyway.

"That's another thing I never told you" Diaval then raised his eyebrows.

"I suppose she resembles her father?" he ventured.

Mal felt her blood boiling. There were days when she wondered what would've happened if Aurora had looked like Stefan and not like Leila, what if that had had some effect on her feelings towards the beastie? Deep down Mal knew that had Aurora looked like him she would've probably loved her less, or in the very least it could've made acclimating to her a much harder task. Oh God, she was such a terrible person… "She's identical to her _mother_," Mal spat out with an angry voice "come on, love. Time to go" she walked to where Aurora was sitting and picked her up, holding her tightly between her arms.

As she walked past Diaval she noticed the _oh shit _look on his face and felt satisfied with knowing he was now aware that he had screwed things up. Perhaps he still had questions but he wouldn't dare to ask, not now not ever because she was getting the hell out of that park. She walked as fast as she could, going back on her own steps towards the bench where she'd been sitting before she foolishly decided to go search for him. When they had almost reached their destination she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, I'm sorry. I didn't know she was…" if he said _adopted _she was going to gently put Aurora down and hit him with something, a branch, a rock… her hand "I didn't know" he finished.

"You still talk too much for your own good."

Why on earth was he trying so hard?

"I still owe you a drink, haven't forgotten" Mal was going to protest but he didn't grant her the opportunity to do so "also, it's been a year. Your alcohol counter is back to zero" Mal could see all her possible excuses running away from her. Aurora was starting to shift in her arms, clearly curious about the conversation going on behind her back but Mal held her even tighter.

"Aurora's with me" _it's too early; I don't really like you; I just met you; I don't like people at all actually… _

"Oh I never said now," Diaval grinned at her and pinched the bridge of his nose, he was thinking and Mal was actually curious to hear his proposal, so she kept quiet until he had something to say. That happened after what she reckoned to be a minute and a half "there's a coffee shop nearby, just down the block where Lionel's Bookstore is located –" Mal interrupted him.

"I know that place."

Diaval smiled "perfect! Well, we could go there sometime if you want to; that way you can keep your liquor counter on zero if you please… or not, I heard they have the most amazing Irish coffee…"

"I'll think about it" Mal gave him points for not trying to get her to drink.

"You don't look like the kind of woman who gives their number to anybody, so when you feel like going out, you can find me here" he was right when he said she wouldn't give him her number. Mal felt something warm inside her chest; perhaps she could have a friend… She didn't have many of them.

Instead of letting her gratitude show she put her walls a bit higher "what? You live here?"

"Close enough."

Diaval was not going to say much more and the thought about him being unemployed crossed Mal's mind. That would explain why he was playing in the park, but unlike him, she was not going to push him for information because, despite the idea of him being a grown man without a job was some sort of pet peeve, she really wasn't that interested.

"Okay."

"Yay!" Aurora yelled happily. _Right. _She was still holding the beastie.

The edges of his mouth were pulled upwards by something Mal decided was self-satisfaction; then she put Aurora down and grabbed her hand to walk back home. Mal's apartment was nearby too and on the way home there were many flower and candy shops Aurora liked to stop by. Of course Aurora got tired more often than not and Mal ended up carrying her… in times like those she asked herself why the hell didn't she use the stroller more often?

They were about to leave when Mal chose to have one final word.

"Diaval?" she called.

"Yes?"

"It seems you left your guitar back in the fountain."

Diaval's eyes widened and his cheeks turned slightly red as he quickly said goodbye and took long, fast steps back to where his beloved guitar was, _if _it was still there.

Mal held back her laughter.

* * *

**I'll just keep pushing... You know what I mean... It starts with a "Re" and ends with a "view"**

**(I'll probably edit later, too).**


	5. Visions Are Seldom All They Seem

**Well hello! Sorry this took so long, I don't have any excuses except that my muses weren't helping. Here... nothing really important happens but it does at the same time. It's odd. Hopefully the OOC'ness will be forgiven.**

**Also, thanks for the reviews, favourites and follows! Enjoy :)**

* * *

It had been a week since Mal had seen Diaval and she still couldn't shake him off her mind. She didn't like to admit it, but ever since Aurora had come into her life, Mal could feel herself softening… and she knew that was dangerous because softening meant letting her guard down; even if it was at a slow pace. To try to make herself feel better she focused on Aurora more than she needed to, she read more books than she ought to and she avoided the park by all means.

Although her methods proved to be successful, there were times –especially before going to sleep– when she couldn't help but wonder if he was really just a musician. Of course it sounded poetic to make music for a living, but it couldn't be… playing a few gigs here and there was not going to pay his taxes. Ironically enough, Mal found herself unable to picture him doing something else; he wasn't just anybody. He had a particular way of walking, almost leisurely; and his voice was so smooth it felt like velvet to her ears. And his clothing style… everything about Diaval yelled that he was doing exactly what he was meant to. Also, playing at night clubs, jazz café's and such places could get him girls.

Mal cringed at that singular thought.

And that was what ultimately made her change her mind. She wanted to know more about him.

That Friday morning Mal woke up feeling different; there was buzz inside her head and something electric coursing through her body. She checked the clock and realized she was up one hour earlier, she would've gone back to sleep if it wasn't for that strange feeling. Sighing, she got out of bed and went to check Aurora. The girl was sleeping soundly, hugging a teddy bear Mal had bought her three weeks ago. She looked so peaceful when she slept one could hardly believe she was a little devil when she was up: running in circles, always making sounds that could wake up the entire building… Mal smiled as the memories came back to her, then she approached Aurora and kissed her forehead.

Being so early in the morning Mal still wasn't in the mood for breakfast, so she decided to go brush her teeth before sinking into her couch with a manuscript she was about to finish reading. As she flicked the pages Mal could feel her eyelids getting heavier and heavier and she eventually fell asleep. Her sleep was empty, no dreams nor nightmares… just like every other time she slept. When she woke up this time was because Aurora was laughing; when Mal headed to Aurora's room was surprised to find the nanny inside playing with Aurora as she fed her oatmeal.

"Oh my god, Valerie. What are you doing here so early?" Mal asked, rubbing the sleep off her eyes. She trusted the young woman enough to not feel uncomfortable with talking to her while wearing pyjamas, were it anybody else she would've died out of embarrassment right there. When Mal felt conscious enough, she noticed, for the second time, that Valerie was giving Aurora her breakfast; that was something _she_ usually did… And Aurora didn't see Valerie until midday, when it was time to pick her up.

"Well, you asked me to come here earlier. You said you had an important meeting and that you wouldn't be able to watch Aurora since she doesn't have to go to the daycare today…" Valerie explained cautiously, noting that Mal had trouble connecting the dots.

Mal's soul dropped to her feet.

"What time is it?" she asked dreadfully.

"It's almost nine thirty."

"_Fuck!_"

She had slept for two hours! She was late, so very, very late. Mal practically threw herself into the shower with her underwear still on –she obviously removed it when she felt something wasn't okay–, she washed her hair and got out of the shower, all in less than five minutes. In no time she was putting on her clothes; the fact that her skin was still wet didn't bother her as much as knowing that she didn't have time to fix her hair. When she looked presentable enough she peeked through the window and cursed. The traffic at that hour was chaotic. It would take her longer to drive than to walk or take the subway…

Mal said goodbye to Valerie and Aurora before exiting her apartment and walking as fast as her stilettos allowed to the subway station. The journey to her office was relatively calm, the people inside the subway train were quiet: they were listening to music, reading the paper or eating. That somehow helped to calm her down, that until she reached her destination and it was time to run again.

Her feet were killing her and Mal wondered how the hell had she decided to wear those shoes with the previous knowledge that she would have to walk; by the time she reached her office the meeting was almost over. Everyone turned their heads to look at her from head to toe, Mal prayed she didn't look like a maniac and proceeded to apologize for her tardiness; she didn't like lying but falling asleep was _not _an excuse; instead she decided to say she'd had issues with her car and that everything had gotten more complicated than she'd expected.

Nobody said anything, they just nodded.

_Perhaps being Maleficent is not so bad; they don't even question me…_ Mal thought relieved. She was lucky enough her assistant had taken notes and in no time she was updated with what had been going on in the meeting; since they were running out of time Mal did her part as fast as she could: she explained how the upcoming month was going to function; what authors they were interested in, different methods of publishing… same old tale, plus discussing the death of Mr. Blackburn, previous owner of the company, and how the whole business was now in the hands of his son, Mr. Blackburn –nobody knew his name, nobody had ever seen his face… but they all wondered if he was genuinely real.

It wasn't until it was almost time to leave that the electric feeling came back to her. Mal had been writing e-mails all day long, her fingers were numb, but all of a sudden she felt the tingling going all the way up her spine until it reached her fingertips. Mal looked at the clock and realized it was six thirty; since she had to take the subway Mal decided it was time to go. The only thing she didn't like about not having her car was that the subway from her office to her house made a different route; in other words, she'd have to go through the park to get home.

By the time she had gotten off the subway and was walking home she was nervous as hell; she was approaching the fountain but didn't see him there… Oddly enough she felt disappointed because the park was full of people. The part of her she tried hard to shut down had wanted to see him, hear his voice. When she decided walking through the park made no sense at all now, she went back on her steps and opted to go to the coffee shop Diaval had told her about. Her head was beginning to ache and she needed coffee, and she could also buy Aurora and Valerie a cupcake since they had stayed alone together all day long. Mal thanked god Valerie was flexible enough, either way she would've had to juggle between getting home early and doing her job.

Getting to the coffee shop meant going in the opposite direction of her apartment, and her feet couldn't take anymore walking for the day; not with high heels at least. Mal knew that Friday nights were full of people eager to go partying or with people about to die out of exhaustion, so she knew they wouldn't notice her bare feet as she walked carrying her shoes in one hand. That day she had worn a skirt and a turtle neck blouse, and as usual, she had forgotten to bring her coat along; the chilly air of the night was beginning to bite her skin when she reached the coffee shop, which was warm inside and smelled like what she imagined Willy Wonka's chocolate factory would smell like.

Mal got in line and ordered an espresso macchiato and two vanilla cupcakes to go. While she waited for her order she put her shoes back on and grabbed a menu to entertain her eyes; as she read through the _panini_ section she became aware that she hadn't eaten at all that day; she had skipped breakfast and lunch, two chocolate chip cookies being all she ate during her time at the office; automatically her stomach roared and suddenly a caprese panini sounded delicious. The woman on the other side of the counter handed her order and Mal went back in line to order the sandwich, she was about to say "to go" when someone called her name.

"Hello, Mal" she smiled before turning around to face him. When she did she was surprised to see he'd gotten his hair cut. He looked so much better now…

"Hello, Diaval…" as she greeted him she took in the whole sight of him; he didn't look like himself at all. Diaval was wearing a blazer, a black scarf around his neck, dress slacks and moccasins. He was also carrying a satchel and there were no signs of his guitar. Even though she wasn't used to watch him like this, Mal couldn't deny he looked very handsome "where's your beloved guitar?" she asked, suddenly forgetting about the man on the cashier waiting for her to tell him where she was going to eat.

"My guitar is at home," he scratched the back of his neck "where's Aurora?" the fact that he remembered her beastie's name made her happy.

"She's at home too, waiting for me actually. I should get going," Mal turned around to tell the cashier the order was to go, paid with her debit card and turned once again to face Diaval "it was nice to see you again, Diaval…" since she was the only left in the line her panini was ready in less than two minutes.

"Yeah, you too…" the disappointment in his voice was so evident Mal couldn't ignore it. She had the coffee, the cupcakes and the panini; Mal was ready to go home to Aurora… yet she wanted to stay with him a bit longer. The tingling hadn't disappeared and she was suspecting it wouldn't until she finally got to talk to him for more than just ten minutes.

Since Stefan, Mal hadn't gone out with anybody and been perfectly fine with that until she met him. Then she remembered Aurora; the girl seemed to like him and he certainly liked her back, perhaps it wasn't a bad idea…

"Diaval, are you busy tonight?" the way the question came out made her feel like a seventeen year old girl asking her crush a stupid question… she could feel her cheeks burning and her heartbeat going crazy inside her chest, but as soon as the smile on his lips appeared and his eyes began to sparkle, she knew it was worth it.

"Not particularly, why?"

"I really need to get home because I left Aurora with her nanny all day, I'll eat there. You're welcome to join me, if you want…"

_Ugh, it sounded worse than she could manage to believe… _

"I'd love to" he nodded and then ordered something to eat too, also a cappuccino. When he had his food they both exited the coffee shop and started to walk to Mal's apartment. On their way home Mal realized this really uncharacteristic of her, it should feel wrong because she barely knew this man, but it didn't.

"You look different…" she commented, hoping he'd take the cue and tell her what the hell was going on with his clothes.

"Yeah well, I couldn't fight my destiny any longer…" Mal whispered a _what _and Diaval shook his head "I'll tell you when we're not out in the street" the rest of the way was made in comfortable silence. When they reached her building Mal was incredibly curious and also incredibly cold; while in the elevator she hoped she hadn't left her apartment completely messy. She politely asked Diaval to hold the food so she could take the keys out of her purse as they walked down the hall, when they reached her door they were greeted by Valerie, who was sitting on the sofa.

"Hi, Valerie. Thank you for watching Aurora today, you really saved me" Mal walked to the kitchen and placed her coffee there, Diaval followed and did the same. When Mal went back to the living room she paid Valerie and handed her the cupcake "Aurora?" she asked, noticing the girl was nowhere to be seen.

"Oh she's asleep, she'll probably wake up later. But you should have enough time alone… Thank you for the cupcake, I'll see you next week" the girl winked an eye to her.

"Valerie!" Mal scolded her, but Valerie didn't say a thing, she just grabbed her purse and left the apartment silently.

Mal watched her go and sighed. Well, she was practically alone with Diaval now. She told him they could either eat in the kitchen's table or in the living room; to her surprise Diaval chose to stay in the kitchen. They sat in front of each other while they ate and talked, that's how Mal learned that he was a year younger than her, that he had been born in England but hated the country, and that he loved cranberries.

She was about to ask about his attire when he brought a finger to her lips to shush her "and about this new outfit, well, as I told you before, I couldn't fight my obligations any longer," Diaval made a pause and Mal fixed her eyes on his face, waiting eagerly for him to continue "my father died recently, he was a good man and he owned a successful editing company. When I was eighteen I told him I had no interest in inheriting the company and he said it was totally with him as long as I went to college. I got a degree in business administration, and once I was done with that, I focused on my music. But now that my father has died and I'm an only child, his company is mine. It doesn't really bother me because as a musician I was having a hard time paying stuff and living in my car, but… It's weird…"

"What's your last name?" Mal's head was spinning, but she still could foresee what he was going to answer. She took another bite of her panini to avoid saying something unwanted.

"Blackburn. Why do you ask?"

_Well, fuck._


	6. She Wants To Rule The World

**We're _finally _getting to the important part of the plot. God, in my head writing this was going to be a hell lot easier. Now that I got this thing written I feel incredibly giddy. Ahem, it may seem like there are a lot of things going on (which is true), but they will eventually come together and make sense.**

**Stay with me... please? **

**Also, I love Once Upon A Time and to those of you who watch the show this line is going to make sense; in this chapter I'm bringing "wicked" back :) **

* * *

She didn't belong to the board and wasn't planning to ever do it, but she blamed them for being so damned secretive and hiding such important things from her.

Mannerisms.

_They could show a picture in the very least. _It was funny to think how careless she'd been before and how much it was killing her now to be aware of the situation.

This new information made Mal clench her jaw; it was one thing to have made assumptions, but it was another deal entirely to have them confirmed; especially when she wanted to be proved wrong. If Diaval was Mr. Blackburn's son, that meant that she somehow worked for him now, and she didn't like that idea at all. Inevitably that granted Diaval power over her, the kind of power that would make her co-workers disrespect her.

Now, why would that happen? First, she was polite; not nice. They feared her, obeyed her and respected her because in that office, between those four walls, she was the queen. The members of the board hardly ever showed up and Mr. Blackburn father just owned the company and signed papers; she was the real boss and she liked it. But now, with Diaval coming into the picture, well… If she knew him well enough by now, Mal was sure he was going to do the exact opposite of what his father did. Diaval was going to want to know the people that worked for him, he was going to want to make friends and make the environment –that was a little heavy, to be honest– a lot more amicable. That shouldn't present any sort of trouble if he didn't know she could be nice; he was going to expose her and people would stop seeing her as Maleficent, the incredible editor-in-chief; she would become Amalia Moore, the friendly editor-in-chief.

Perhaps she was taking it too far, but she couldn't risk it, for the greater part of her life her job had been the only thing she truly cared about, and when you hold your position so dearly, you can hardly think of something else. Diaval couldn't know.

"Mal? You okay?" he had a concerned look on his face, Mal didn't notice he had placed his hand on hers until he called her back to reality. She moved her hand away immediately and earned a hurt look from him; what could he been expecting, anyhow? Mal was annoyed, she was aware it wasn't his fault but she felt like she'd been lied to.

"I'm fine," the chaos inside her head didn't quite reach her voice "tell me: what are you going to do? It's a big responsibility…" forget the personal nonsense she'd wanted to know about him before, this, just like any other thing in her life had turned into an strict business relationship on her behalf, Diaval would figure it out eventually.

He seemed to be taken aback by her sudden coldness, but answered anyway "I, well… Right now I'm just dealing with the protocol, signing papers and receiving guidance. It's going to be sometime before I get to work with everybody, turns out my father left a mess for me to fix… I'm actually excited" Mal just nodded and took a big sip of coffee; her head was beginning to ache once again.

"What about you? What do you for a living?" Diaval asked innocently.

What the hell was she going to say now? She couldn't tell him but she couldn't lie to him either. Mal tried to think quickly about plausible jobs; because with such an apartment, Aurora, and her decoration she couldn't have just any job. Oh dear god, she was so fucked…

"Mum!" Aurora's voice called from the bedroom next to hers and Mal sprinted to it, thanking Aurora wordlessly for having the perfect timing. When she entered the room and turned the lights on she found the little girl standing inside her crib, holding onto the bars while she flexed her knees and made small jumps. Aurora flashed her a playful smile and extended her arms out to her "Out, please."

"Of course…" Mal slid the bars down and proceeded to pick Aurora up "You remember Diaval, love? The man who let you play his guitar?" Mal knew she was probably asking too much, but Aurora nodded anyway; perhaps she was clueless but the small movement of her head was enough to make Mal calm down a bit "He's here now, would you like to see him?"

"Yes! I'll make a new friend!" Mal's lack of personal relationships sometimes took a toll on Aurora; in consequence she got really excited whenever she met someone new that wasn't her age. It usually made Mal feel proud to think Aurora felt more comfortable around adults than she did around kids. There had been a parent meeting once, that time a teacher had approached Mal, really concerned about Aurora having called another boy _dumb _because he couldn't understand she was drawing a fish and kept saying it was a dog.

_She can't tolerate stupidities._

That particular trait was going to save the both of them a lot of trouble in the future; her girl was smart. When Mal reached the hallway she put Aurora down and let her walk to the living room, where she guessed Diaval had moved to; seconds later she heard the girl say hi and Diaval answered happily in return. While she stood in the shadows of the hallway she watched silently their interaction: there was no way one could deny Diaval was good with children. The way he grabbed her tiny hand and made her twirl just because he thought her pyjamas were pretty, the way he seemed genuinely interested in whatever she had to say about her day with Valerie… Everything Mal had to make an effort to learn, Diaval possessed naturally.

It wasn't until she noticed Diaval's eyes searching for her that Mal realized she'd been standing in the shadows too long. As Mal tried to fight her emotional reality, she went to the living room and sat next to Diaval on the couch, but kept her focus on Aurora.

"I brought you a cupcake, would you like to have it now?" it was a bad idea to give a kid sugar at night, but she didn't want Aurora to fall asleep on her and leave her alone with Diaval and his conversation… oddly enough she didn't want him to leave just yet; when he left he would be nothing more than her new boss, not the _friend_ she had intended him to be in the first place.

"Is it a chocolate one?" Aurora raised her eyebrows and chin as she rolled back and forth on her heels, waiting for the answer.

"No, it's a vanilla one."

"But I don't like vanilla!" Diaval laughed and Mal fought back the urge to push him off the couch. Aurora hardly ever craved chocolate, she was all about vanilla here and there, Mal sighed "You don't like chocolate, beastie…" she corrected.

"Do we have chocolate syrup?" the devious smile on the girl told her everything she needed to know. Mal stood up and went to the kitchen once again, opened the cupboard and retrieved the chocolate syrup Aurora insisted on buying. She poured a few drops on the cupcake, placed it on a small plastic plate and then set up Aurora's high chair; when she was done she picked Aurora up –she had followed her to the kitchen– and sat her there with the cupcake; the girl didn't stand on ceremonies and started eating right away.

"Are you sure it is a good idea?" Diaval asked from behind her, startling Mal just a tiny bit.

"It's a terrible idea, indeed…" it was easy to admit that much "but if she didn't eat it today it was going to be ruined by the morning, I don't like trashing food" Mal smiled while she looked at the beastie, her face already a mess of vanilla and chocolate.

"Now that's a lie," Mal could hear the smirk on his face, when she turned around she was greeted by a devilish grin "you're consciously provoking the sugar rush…"

It was so very inappropriate… the way Diaval approached her, the way he leaned forward and placed a strand of her hair behind her ear and whispered _are you afraid to be left alone with me?, _all with Aurora right in front of them. The way his breath hit her naked shoulder made her shiver, she suddenly wished she wasn't wearing a turtle neck; she wanted to feel his breath against her neck too… Oh god, what was she thinking? He might not be aware of it, but she was… they worked together. Mal pulled away from him like he was some sort of plague and tried to gather her wits once again.

"I'm not afraid of anything," Mal cleared her throat "but we're not alone and I barely know you, behave properly" she finished.

Diaval stepped back and placed his hands on his hips "well, at this point it is I the one who could say that. I hardly know something about you, tell me… What's your story?" he asked charmingly.

Mal thought that she could hide what she did for a living from him, but not who she was; so she decided to tell him that her parents had died when she was a kid, she used that chance to say she was sorry for his loss too since she didn't do it before. She told him about her best friend and her daughter, who she was taking care of now –though she didn't mention Stefan–.

"At least it wasn't in vain" he commented when she was done. Mal turned her head to the right to watch Aurora –who was now licking the crumbs from the plastic plate– and smiled.

"No, it definitely wasn't…"

Mal didn't catch the small glimpse of admiration that flashed through Diaval's eyes, followed by an amused spark of _malice_.

"I'm done!" Aurora announced. Mal was about to get up and help Aurora down when Diaval stood up and told her he got it. She didn't expect him to know how to manipulate the chair, but he did it easily and in no time Aurora was down, all covered in sugar. She grabbed one of Diaval's hands and led him to what Mal supposed was the bathroom; she then heard the water running and by the time they were back Aurora was clean and fresh.

"Thank you, Diaval" Mal muttered and Aurora climbed to sit next to her. Mal helped her up and placed her on her lap; the black haired man followed suit and looked at the both of them smiling.

"I should go; I need to make some phone calls…" Diaval's words left his mouth leisurely, almost against his will.

Mal knew the second he walked out her door the charm would be broken, once he was gone Mal would try her best to stay away from him. She resented that thought but embraced the idea with all her strength. She nodded her head in agreement and walked him to the door with Aurora in her arms; the girl kissed him on the cheek and smiled brightly at him before wiggling her way out of Mal's arms. Diaval watched her go with a warm look on his face.

"Will you give me your number now?" he tilted his head and smiled at her. Mal was growing frustrated because she wanted him gone, the sooner he left the sooner she could begin to pretend that night never happened, she didn't want to see him again in the near future; if they ever saw each other again it would be in the office, once he knew who she really was and accepted the idea that she wasn't interested in anything he could offer.

"Good night, Diaval" she said, gently denying his proposition. He looked defeated but he walked out anyways, just when Mal thought he was going to head straight to the elevator, he stood back under the door frame and stopped her from closing the door.

"Aren't you a damned challenge?" he breathed out; Mal was about to ask what he meant with that line when Diaval quickly placed his hand on her jaw and attracted her to him, he closed the remaining space between them and sealed his lips upon hers. Diaval could have thin lips but his kiss overwhelmed her, made four of her five senses abandon her, leaving her adrift with the sensation of his lips moving against hers. Kissing had never felt so good before…

Not once.

It was this little detail what made her pull away from him, scared that she had already given in more than she could afford to; she just rested her forehead against his and tried to even her breathing. Diaval didn't protest, he just stayed still until she finally opened her eyes and found him staring back at her.

"Good night, Mal" with that he left, it happened so fast she even lost her balance and leaned forward involuntarily. Diaval didn't use the elevator, Mal watched him disappear slowly as he made his way downstairs.

She was in trouble, but her emotional turmoil could wait. Right after she closed the door her bubble burst and she slowly came back to the real world; she could now hear Aurora yelling something about pirates as she ran around the coffee table in the middle of the living room. Now it was time to deal with the aftershocks of dropping a sugar bomb.

Mal reprimanded herself for being so rash and promised she'd never do it again.

In the office things were going alright. Nobody talked about the new owner and Mal presumed no one really cared since they were all going crazy with their own lives; the only one who seemed to be preoccupied about that matter was her. She was anxious most of the time, even her assistant –who never dared to speak of personal things– said she acted like someone high on Redbull. Mal tossed the comment away with a single wave of her hand and went on with her life.

Since she didn't give Diaval her number there was no way to reach him; he wasn't in the park anymore and she didn't hear any rumours of him paying a visit to his recently acquired company. Not that she paid much attention to what people said, she was busy with the inner battle going on inside her head and heart; mentally she had succeeded in only seeing him as her boss, all thoughts of friendship and romance thrown away; but also, given the fact that the damned man had taken a special spot inside her head and that she didn't have any new memories with or about him, she kept hitting the repeat button of the time he kissed her to fill the void. Her heart was a different story though, Diaval still hadn't taken a spot there, but the memories she had of him were starting to grant him the chance to do so.

It was so unfair. He wasn't even trying anymore and there she was, letting him inside her heart. It had been just one kiss, _one_.

_True love's kiss?_

In spite of being sat at her desk with a stack of papers in front of her, Mal's head was in the clouds and would've remained there if the phone ringing had not broken the spell. The caller ID didn't show any name and Mal was about to transfer the call to her assistant until she thought that whoever might be calling had her extension; therefore they would be someone important. When she picked up the phone she didn't know what to expect, but her blood froze the second she recognized the voice on the other side of the line.

"How did you get my number?" this time she didn't bother to hide her anger and anxiousness.

"Why? Not glad that I called?"

Mal's fist clenched so very tight she could feel her long nails digging into her palm, she took a second to watch her hand and realize there was blood. She didn't unclench her fist.

"What the fuck do you want?" this conversation was not getting anywhere, so many questions and zero answers…

"Watch your language, darling. You have my daughter. I want her back."

_Oh God…_

"You _never _had her."

She was going to faint, Mal could already feel reality slipping away from her; it was like trying to hold on to water with your fingers. When she noticed she had tunnel vision Mal accepted she probably wouldn't make it to the end of that conversation, her world was slowly fading into black and shades of blue.

"Well, that's about to be fixed."

Even if she had something to say about it, she couldn't find her voice to do so, she just let him hang up. Mal became aware she was trembling when she tried to put her phone back on the machine, then she unclenched her fist and watched the open wounds. The sight of blood coming out was what did her in the end; she just let herself go and prayed it was all just a terrible nightmare.

* * *

**Now what's that smell? Is it... Could it be...?**

**It's the plot! And future legal issues. **


	7. Keep It Professional

A/N: Well, hello! Jeez, it took me way too long to update again, my apologies. Thanks for the reviews, favourites and follows! They all mean a lot! A lot happens in this chapter also, I'm excited, let me know what you think!

I'll let you read while I sleep because it's 3:39 a.m. (inspiration seems to hit me at these hours...), enjoy! :)

* * *

She was resting on her side; she could hear her heart beating against the pillow and the drum-like sound made her conscious once more. Before opening her eyes, Mal realized the air was unnaturally cold; it smelled different but somehow clean, the scent of alcohol mixing with the air served to soothe her in an odd sort of way. When she opened her eyes she was faced with a light blue curtain; she noticed she was lying on a bed with a metal railing and that her sheets were blindingly white –_she was in a hospital_; after scanning her surroundings Mal tried to sit up straight. At her attempt to support her weight on her hands she was remembered of her previous injure by a sharp sting on the palm of her hand; which was bandaged now.

How long had she been unconscious? She needed to call Flittle and tell her about Stefan; fuck, she needed to do so many things she was feeling overwhelmed again. Who had taken her to the hospital, anyway? Was she alone now? She certainly couldn't be alone, but it seemed like she was…

Just when she was about to get up and go find some answers on her own, the curtain that isolated her from the rest of the world was pulled aside, and in front of her appeared her assistant; she was carrying a cup of what Mal presumed to be coffee, and she didn't see Mal was awake until Mal cleared her throat to make her acknowledge her presence.

"Oh! It's good to see you're back, Miss Moore… H –how are you feeling?" she asked with a nervous smile on her face. Even though Mal didn't feel like smiling at all, she forced herself to smile back in the best way she could manage.

"I'm good… Uhm, Tiffany? How long have we been here?" the woman checked her watch and told her it was three forty five in the afternoon, Mal reckoned she'd been out for almost two and a half hours "Oh my god… I need to go."

Tiffany approached the bed and placed a hand on Mal's thigh to make her stay still, when she thought she'd made her point clear she removed her hand and Mal just stared back at her "I have work to do, Tiffany…"

"The doctor said you were under a lot of stress, they gave you some painkillers to help you deal with the wound in your hand and hopefully, calm you down a bit…" Tiffany seemed awkward about something, but Mal couldn't really blame her. Over the years she'd been sort of intimidating to the entire personal, especially her assistant… and the hospital's emergency room perhaps wasn't the best place for bonding.

Mal sighed and nodded in agreement, truth was if she was going to deal with the bullshit that was awaiting her, she needed to get some rest and relax, even if it required meds to help her do so. She dedicated Tiffany a condescending smile "I won't go anywhere; and as far as I know, I gave you a lot of work to do… You should go and finish, Tiffany."

"But –"

"You needn't worry about me, I'll be fine."

Mal was grateful for Tiffany's concern, but she wanted to be left alone with her mind for a little while… Her thoughts were littered all over the place and before she could do anything, she needed to put herself together. When Tiffany finally agreed to leave, Mal stared almost stupidly at her bandaged hand.

She was still vulnerable to Stefan, it only took a phone call to make her hurt herself because of him; because she couldn't handle it. Given the fact that her hand was sort of hurting Mal believed that the meds were wearing off, but when she found out that she really couldn't get as angry as she would've gotten at that singular thought, Mal decided she was still somewhat sedated. She waited a few more minutes before the doctor showed up and he didn't tell her anything she didn't already know.

_She was undergoing a stress crisis._

_She needed medication._

"For how long has this been going on?" the doctor asked with the softest and friendliest voice she'd heard in a real long time.

"A couple hours."

The man looked at her quizzically and Mal took it as a sign he wanted her to explain because he wasn't buying her story at all.

"Look, I'm the head editor of a big company; that alone could stress anybody. And today I received an unpleasant phone call that was the cause of this mess. I am okay, I don't need medication."

"And if _just a phone call _made you dig your nails into your palm that hard and faint, Miss Moore, I'm positively sure you need a light treatment to help you deal with it."

When Mal left the hospital she was carrying the meds the doctor had prescribed in her purse; against her will. She took a cab to her office and the second she placed a foot inside everybody told her to go home and rest; Mal appreciated they trusted her enough to let her drive back to her apartment on her own; no one offered to give her a lift or accompany her.

Aurora was already home with Valerie when she got home; Mal felt her limbs extremely heavy and asked Valerie to leave at the hour she usually did because she couldn't watch Aurora at the moment. After greeting the little beastie, Mal dragged herself to the master bedroom and threw her body carelessly on the soft duvet-covered mattress. Without further effort, while resting on her stomach, Mal reached for her cell phone and called Flittle.

"Hello?"

"He's back."

She heard Flittle clearing her throat "_who's _back, precisely?"

"Aurora's father: Stefan Bauer. He wants her back…"

"He's taking it to the court? Did he specifically tell you he wanted the child's custody?" Flittle spoke way too fast, her voice tended to get incredibly high pitched whenever she did that and Mal hated that in her lawyer.

"No, he didn't. But I know he will." Mal was aware it was only going to take a couple days, or weeks –if she got lucky–, before she heard from Stefan again. That piece of crap knew how to reach her now; and she knew he loved teasing her… what had once been something that used to drive her crazy in a good kind of way, now was going to break her.

"Unless he actually opens a case, there's nothing you should be worrying about. I don't think he will do it anyways, it's a long process…"

"But it's extremely suspicious, Flittle. I don't trust this man; Leila had just discovered she was pregnant when she told him, and he said he didn't want anything to do with the baby; and now, three years later, he's calling me to tell me he wants his daughter? I need to know what's going on…"

"Amalia, you're overreacting." _Overreacting? _Despite Flittle being her senior, Mal always seemed to know better –most times–. Fear was the most primal feeling, it was fear what usually held the status quo; and in the depths of her heart Mal was afraid, she was going to fight to keep Aurora even though the battle itself had not started.

"I need to know what he's been doing these last three years. Criminal records, whereabouts, _everything_. Can you help me with that, please?" Mal imitated the tone the doctor had used previously on her, hoping it would work on her lawyer.

Mal begged for a couple minutes, she fought back every come back Flittle had and the idea she would have made a great lawyer crossed Mal's mind as her lawyer's arguments began to falter; she was standing on thin ice and Mal was about to make her crack. This was a serious situation, one that required her full and prompt attention… perhaps she wouldn't get much sleep, but she was going to definitely sleep better knowing that she'd taken up the matter. Instead of worrying over something, she needed to do something about it and Flittle was key… when she finally agreed Mal felt like a victor.

Flittle said it wouldn't take long but that she would have to wait at least two days before she came up with information. After that, the phone call ended and Mal fell asleep.

When she woke up for the third time that day she supported on her elbows to lift her upper body and check the clock on her nightstand; it was eleven fifteen in the night. Aurora was sleeping in the bed with her, curled up against her side. Mal sat up and gathered Aurora in her arms to place her head on the soft pillows and throw the duvet on her; the girl was already in pyjamas and Mal silently thanked Valerie for being such a great nanny. In the dark of her bedroom, Mal watched Aurora's peaceful face as she slept, the moonlight that seeped through the window curtains gave Aurora a sweet look; her baby features became even more evident. Mal couldn't let Stefan touch her, she wouldn't.

Mal's protective thoughts got interrupted abruptly by a growl coming from her stomach; once again she hadn't eaten at all. Just like in a dream, she moved swiftly out of her bed and walked to the kitchen, she didn't have the energy to cook so cereal would do.

It was going to be a long, long night.

By the end of the week Mal hadn't heard a thing from Flittle.

Also, it would be two weeks since she had last seen Diaval. More often than not she wondered where he could be before scolding herself for thinking about him so constantly, the cycle went on and on, but she still tried to break it. Since she couldn't rely on the board, Mal was expecting Diaval to visit anytime now and, to be honest, she was _dreading _that visit. Since her little breakdown people who walked near her office looked through the glass walls with preoccupied eyes.

_Our boss is crazy._

_I'll end up like her if I keep working like this._

Mal ignored them; she poured every drop of her being into making herself oblivious to those looks, and it was working. On Saturday morning, it was about ten, she finally received Flittle's call. Before sliding the small bar on the screen to answer the call, Mal stared at the screen nervously. The feeling of wanting to know everything but not wanting to know a single thing at the same time was eating her alive; but in the end she slid the bar and pressed the phone to her ear.

"Speak up."

Flittle said a quick hello, cleared her throat and began to blurt out the information she'd gathered. "Turns out your Stefan Bauer changed his last name almost two years ago; he now goes by Stefan Rex. Your sixth sense it quite acute, Miss Moore; this man is quite wealthy now, and is known for gambling and making bets on horses, especially in Vegas. He's been sued several times for playing dirty, but he's never been in jail –I gather he bails himself away from prison by paying the right people–; still, he owes money to the wrong people. Also, I should point out, he's married to a woman named Ursula Knoxville since last year."

Flittle made a pause.

"Are you still there?" she asked.

Mal was processing this whole lot of information when the pieces of the puzzle inside her head finally came together.

"That motherfucker…" Mal mumbled.

"I'm guessing you connected the dots?" Flittle pointed out and Mal nodded although Flittle couldn't really see her.

"He wants the money Leila saved to cover Aurora's needs. _He wants the fucking pension to pay his debts_!" Mal shouted.

This was low even for him, using his own daughter? God, just when she thought he couldn't get any more stupid. Mal was struggling with words, her tongue seemed to have paralyzed inside her mouth…

_This is so fucked up…_

"Miss Moore, I take back my words. Perhaps you should prepare yourself, if we're sorting things out right; he's taking it to the court."

* * *

The next week kicked off rather ungracefully; Aurora had caught a cold and their nights lacked of sleep, both Mal and beastie woke up tired and grumpy; for a split second Mal considered the idea of taking a pill –the ones she'd bought when she was in the hospital and hadn't taken at all since she got home– to soothe her mood, but gathered she was better off without them and went straight to work. That Monday morning, while driving to the office, Mal decided she'd ask for permission to work at home for two days to take care of Aurora properly. The girl was lucky she could stay at home that day; the morning was incredibly cold and the clouds were blocking the sun, making the sky look pale and sad. Not even the birds were singing.

Any other day Mal would've loved the weather, but she was tired, she was cold and she had a sick child at home. All she wanted was to stay inside her apartment, wrap Aurora in blankets and sleep with her after drinking some hot chocolate –and Aurora some cough syrup. The girl hardly ever got sick, so whenever that happened Mal tried to keep her as comfortable as possible; nobody liked being sick, after all.

The second she entered her office she immediately turned on her laptop and proceeded to write an e-mail to her superior; she explained the current situation and assured she'd work just as efficiently –not that they doubted she would, but she wrote it all the same. The fact that she didn't have much on her "to-do's" list worked on her behalf, so Mal just sat peacefully at her desk, waiting for the reply and wondering when the phone would ring next.

She was expecting Stefan to call anytime now.

Mal was staring at the phone when she heard some babblings outside her office; she was curious by nature and chose to step out of her office to see what was going on outside. Carefully, _slowly_, she opened the glass door and poked her head out, what she saw was enough. Mal quickly went back in, grabbed her purse and laptop, and exited the place right away. She walked quickly but delicately in the opposite direction of the whole mess; Mal felt lucky her working place had two entrances or, in this case, exits.

Well, she was a coward at some point. But she couldn't face _him_ looking the way she did; sure she had tried to cover the bags beneath her eyes with some make up, and she was wearing her ever present red lipstick; her hair was tied in a high and elegant pony tail but still, despite knowing she looked like the incredible editor she was, Mal felt like she needed some rest to look alive again.

_And now you care about the way he sees you… Get over yourself, Amalia._

And she was getting over herself; she was pushing her decent speed limits to get out without being obvious. Just when she got a hold on the doorknob she heard his voice getting closer, but in a matter of seconds she was merrily making her way to her car; she'd read the response to her e-mail at home.

In the parking lot Mal felt at ease, she slowed her pace and enjoyed the clicking of her heels against the pavement, she loved the way the sound echoed. When she spotted her car she began to search for her badge –because the gates of the parking lot only opened when the censor read her badge's code– and her car keys. Finding the former was easier since she got it in her pocket, but the keys presented a bigger issue, since they were inside her purse. When she finally got them and fiddled with them in her fingers, she heard footsteps behind her and her knees felt like jelly when she saw _him_.

"Got'cha" Diaval said with shortness of breath, had he been running? Mal didn't walk _that _fast.

"W –what… I… what?" ugh, that wasn't how she wanted thing to go. Not at all.

"I was expecting a friendly meeting, you know, because we haven't seen each other in weeks and the last time we hanged out we kissed…" Mal pinched his arm "Ouch!"

"Stop that!" she scolded him.

Diaval had a smug grin on his face that didn't lessen at all even after she physically attacked him "Having you running away from me hurt me, I must say."

Mal sighed and let her emerald green eyes fix on his dark ones "how long have you known?"

"What? Who you were?" Diaval asked and Mal nodded "I knew the second I got the company."

That earned him another pinch; this one was harder than the previous one.

"Explain yourself!"

"You seriously have to stop doing that!" Diaval rubbed his arm to soothe the pain "And as for the explanation you so want: the second I met with my lawyers and the board they warned me about Miss Amalia Moore, also known as _Maleficent_. She's the most fearless editor, also a determined and incredibly smart woman. They said you were the necessary evil to make this huge company work. You can only imagine how amazingly shocked I was to discover it was you, the woman who saved my ass in that alley a year ago."

She was somewhat flattered.

"But…"

"Besides, the door to your office has these beautiful golden letters that read _A. Moore_. I saw you the second you got out; I was really excited to get to your office, introduce myself as Mr. Diaval Blackburn, see your blushing face and show you the suit I bought to give you a good impression" he winked an eye to her.

Of all the things he said, she chose to speak on the most stupid one.

"You bought a suit?" Mal looked at him, really _looked _at him and noticed he was wearing a very nice black suite and an unbuttoned white shirt. Why didn't it surprise her?

"That I did," Diaval stuffed his hands inside his slacks pockets "now, where are you going? I am your boss now, you have to report to me."

The playful tone in his voice as he made that comment made her want to pinch his arm again, this was exactly what she wanted to avoid.

"Look, _Mr. Blackburn_, whatever happened in the past, is in the past. We're business partners now, as you said it, you're my new boss. So let's make this professional, shall we?" Mal took a deep breath "Aurora is sick, I need to go home and check she's alright. I also asked for permission to work at home until Wednesday, although, if you're against that idea, I can always go back to the office…"

"Of course you can go," Mal sensed he was forcing himself to sound disappointed and was proved right when he stepped closer to her and almost whispered against her face "but you have to know that I have my eyes on you, I promise I'll try to keep it professional while in the office, but Mal…"

"Thank you."

She cut him off and opened the door of her car; she got in and was busy closing the door when Diaval stopped her. He had a thing with doors, didn't he?

"Don't pretend you don't think about that kiss, I know you do. First but not the last, I promise."

Then he closed the door for her and let her go; Mal's heart was beating almost just as fast as she was driving.

* * *

Regarding Stefan:

**Bauer/ Baur /Bäuerle –** From the old German word 'büre` which means `farmer` in English. In particular it refers to a 'modest living' farmer. The surname is particularly common in Bavaria, Germany. This German last name traced back to the 14th and 15th centuries, albeit in slightly different forms (Pauwer / Bawer / Bawr / Pauer).

**Rex – **"King" in Latin.


	8. Liking Him Is Not A Bad Thing

**A/N: Yeah well... fluffy chapter ahead. ****I swear this woman (Maleficent) is not an easy character to write, later in this chapter I wrote something about her going back and forth between choices, well, I'm doing the exact same thing with her. I don't know why I choose to write about complex characters... Hopefully you'll enjoy this installment, though :)  
**

**Also: YOLO (read and you'll understand, I laughed while writing that part).**

**Thanks for the reviews guys! xxx.**

* * *

She had trouble trusting people; believing in someone was a dangerous deal. It was all a simple metaphor, if you place yourself in the middle of a battlefield, then you should prepare to get shot at any time. But somehow, and against all odds, Diaval was making her trust him. Like she hadn't been on that road for some time now, Mal decided it all started when he kept his word and stayed professional. Sure she didn't like being the same room with him and more often than not she acted extremely cold towards him, but she was genuinely grateful. Diaval's office wasn't big, and it was near hers –separated by just a hall and a coffee machine, at which they often met. She was usually the one who craved coffee first, Diaval popped out of nowhere a minute or two later and he waited patiently for her to prepare her drink… Odd thing was he also waited in total silence.

They never exchanged more than a slight smile and a simple nod; when she was ready to head back to her desk, Diaval just smiled and raised his empty cup at her to bid her goodbye before focusing on his own beverage.

Although she wasn't fond of sharing physical space with him, when it came to meetings it was inevitable. If Mal had learned something about this man was that he certainly wasn't what he seemed but at the same time he was. For example, in their first meeting she discovered Diaval didn't like to sit at the head of the table, like most bosses did. He instead preferred to be sat in between other people… Mal hadn't seen that coming but it didn't surprise her, Diaval was like an old known stranger. What _did _surprise her was the fact that although he did look at her several times during their meetings, it was actually _her _the one who couldn't take her eyes off him. And to worsen everything: he noticed. Diaval either smirked or winked at her whenever he caught her red-handed, and she in return got red… Mal could feel the blush reaching her neck every single time.

It wasn't long before he asked her out…

…but she didn't say yes right away.

"_I can't leave Aurora alone, you know? And her nanny has a life."_

"_Oh come on, a friendly neighbour can take care of her, perhaps?"_

She only liked one out of her many neighbours: a lady whose kids attended college and her husband worked like a maniac, she spent the greater part of her days alone and Aurora was fond of her... They had even made cookies together once. It wasn't a bad idea… But she still didn't say yes.

"_If it's too much trouble we can always bring her along, I don't mind."_

"_We work together."_

"_I won't set a picnic table inside the office; we can go out just fine."_

"_A picnic? That's your idea for a date?"_

"_So you're considering it."_

"_No, I'm not."_

"_Look, I have proved you I can be professional. But can __**you**__? Is that why you won't say yes? Afraid you won't be able to control yourself, Amalia?"_

It was the challenging tone in his voice what made her heart race, childish as it was, she would love to prove him wrong. Mal could be as stoical as a rock if she wanted to –except for the times Diaval caught her staring, but that should not be ever taken into consideration; she attributed those glances to boredom–; so she fought back the smirk that formed in her lips as she considered his challenge.

"_Fine. One date."_

They would go out on Sunday.

* * *

When Sunday arrived Mal was driving herself crazy. Flittle didn't work on Sundays, she never called on Sundays… but that one in particular she did.

It hadn't been long before she heard from Stefan again, or his lawyer to be precise. He was going to open a case to take the custody away from her; Mal had cried deeply that night and hardly slept. She told Flittle to keep her informed, her call that Sunday was just her doing her job.

Stefan would appeal to the argument that she was unable to provide proper care to Aurora although Mal had three years of experience backing her up that proved otherwise. Flittle told her not to worry much because Stefan didn't have much to his favour: he was the disappeared father and just that. That was the reason why they opened the case, after all. They would begin an investigation before going to court –because there was no way they would fix this without reaching that point–… Once again she was going to be asked a lot of questions, so would Aurora.

Not long ago Diaval had been a stress motive, but with this entire storm brewing about her, he was far from being another problem… Diaval was like an intake of fresh air in the middle of a smoke cloud, for the day at least. So when the phone call ended, she immediately jumped into the shower and began to get ready. Under the hot stream of the shower and surrounded by the sweet aroma of her soap and shampoo, Mal tried to cleanse herself from the negative vibes, she washed them away, let them flow down her body and into the drain.

She'd once heard that technique from a yoga video and never used it before until that day, perhaps it had been a total placebo but it worked.

When she got out of the shower she saw Aurora sitting on her bed wearing a tutu while she played with dolls, the TV was on but the little girl paid little attention to it. Mal smiled and let out a tired sigh at the view before going inside her walk-in-closet. Mal looked at her clothes and like a complete teenager she thought she'd nothing to wear… She was not going to wear anything black nor white, but she wasn't a fan of pastels either. A skirt didn't suit her fancy that day but jeans were way too casual; and shoes… wearing high heels didn't sound like a good idea, it was probably best to go for her favourite pair of flats, but she didn't jump into that boat right away. When doubt started to eat her alive and felt like it was dating Stefan all over again, Mal exited the secluded space and went to get Aurora. At this point she didn't mind what the girl would choose, she'd just tell her to pinpoint whatever caught her attention and Mal would wear that.

Aurora ended up choosing a dress the colour of cream with a V-neck that had an elegant amount of cleavage; Mal complemented it with a light brown belt around her waist, wedges and a turquoise bracelet. Her hair was once again tied up in a ponytail and her lips the usual red colour; when she was done she smiled at her reflection in the mirror, satisfied. Mal got her purse, another bag with drinks and crackers, then Aurora and finally went to knock on her neighbour's door –she was named Flora Knotgrass. Flora opened the door after the second knock and smiled broadly at them.

Mal was still reluctant to let Aurora under her care all alone, but shook off the suspicion seconds later when Aurora moved forward to hug the elder woman's knees. They would be staying at Flora's but Mal left the extra key to her apartment in case Aurora needed to get something; she then said goodbye to Flora, kissed Aurora on her forehead and went to meet Diaval for lunch at the park, turns out they were actually going to have a picnic, hence the drinks and crackers.

He told her to meet him by the fountain; Mal felt a pleasant tingling when she found him right there, playing his guitar once again. She felt the edges of her mouth curving upwards as she approached him, when he noticed her presence he stopped playing.

"So you play again now" saying _hello _was overrated, that comment would suffice as a way of greeting.

"You look radiant," he said "and old habits die hard, what can I say?" Diaval stood up and with his guitar still strapped onto him, he awkwardly leaned forward to kiss her cheek. Mal prayed he hadn't noticed the sudden heat in her cheeks. She looked away momentarily, admiring the ever green trees about them.

When Diaval noticed she had drifted away in her inner thoughts he cleared his throat, pulling her out of her mind.

"We should look for a spot or something, don't you think?" Mal suggested and Diaval agreed, he fixed his guitar back into its case, strapped it around his torso and picked up some plastic bags before following Mal in their quest for the perfect spot to sit down. It didn't take them long though; Mal found a bench placed just beneath an enormous tree –which sheltered them from the burning sun, with a nice view to the rest of the park. The only con that came to her mind was that they were an easy target and could be hit by the birds' poop any second; either way she hoped that wouldn't happen.

Diaval had brought the sandwiches and she was nervous as to what he would put in them; yes they had talked about some deep stuff before and not so deep, too –Mal was sure they would've said more had she not been so busy trying to hide who she was and Aurora keeping them company–, but sandwich preference hadn't been one of them.

Mal was busy with her memories when Diaval handed her a sandwich.

"Thank you," she looked at it with inquisitive eyes and Diaval laughed "what?"

"Do you always spend so much time thinking so hard?" Mal glared at him in return and Diaval cleared his throat "I mean, you always seem so… thoughtful, you're always caught up in your own musings…"

Well, he was right about that "I usually am, to be honest. Does it bother you?" she raised a sharp eyebrow at him.

"Not at all" he assured her and Mal believed him.

"Good."

She was going to leave it like that until she came across the principal issue once more.

"I do have one question though, what did you put in these sandwiches?"

"Chicken, with honey mustard and a bit of almonds. I hope you're not allergic, if you are then I fucked things up…"

Mal laughed at his evident nervousness "no, I'm not allergic. You can relax, Mr. Blackburn."

"Sure thing, Mistress."

Then he took a bite of his sandwich. Mal just kept staring at him pretty much the way she used to at meetings, this time flummoxed by the way he'd called her. She asked "_what did you just call me?" _And waited for him to swallow so he could answer "Oh come on, Mal. I might be the boss, but you're the top boss" then he winked an eye at her.

"Don't call me that in the office though, _Maleficent _is enough" Mal said feeling giddy, and then she took a bite of the sandwich. _Oh god_. It was delicious. They ate in comfortable silence, never once she felt the situation getting awkward and she found herself thinking about how easy things with Diaval could be.

Halfway through her sandwich Mal felt her throat getting dry and offered Diaval a drink; she'd childishly brought orange and grape juice, guessing he'd prefer the grape one –which he did. They didn't talk much; sometimes they just looked at each other and smiled until he broke the friendly silence.

"So, now that you aren't keeping information from me, tell me… Why'd you become an editor?" the answer to his question was simple.

"How much do you know about Charles Bukowski, Diaval?" she asked, then she took a sip of her orange juice.

"Just his name."

She smiled. "Well, he wrote a poem called _Cut While Shaving_. The poem starts like this:

"_It's never quite right, he said, the way people look,_

_the way music sounds, the way the words are_

_written."_

I'm a fan of that poem in general, but that part got to me. I was madly in love with his poetry and when that particular verse made something inside me click, well, I thought I'd found something I could do happily" Mal explained, feeling a little bit sad and somewhat ashamed by the mesmerized look Diaval was giving her.

"And you're not happy now?"

"I am. I'm just under a lot of stress right now."

Mal thought he was going to push further for more information, but he didn't. Instead he asked about Aurora and she received the change of subject gladly. During that whole time she hadn't even thought of the kiss, when she remembered it she wanted to desperately ask him why he'd done it. Mal only became aware she had actually asked him until she heard him answering.

"It would have taken me forever to find the actual proper moment, so I just went for it. Have you heard about this not so new motto called YOLO?" Mal quirked her eyebrows and dedicated him a serious glare, she knew what it was; she just couldn't believe Diaval was really saying that. Her lack of reply made him believe she was ignorant to the meaning of the word, so he went on "it means You Only Live Once. I know a lot of teenagers use it as an excuse to get crazy and do some real idiotic things, but in that moment…"

"You felt the word speaking to you?" this time Mal burst in laughter, the kind of laughter that left her breathless and made her eyes tear up "It touched your very soul?" she asked between musical laughs and ragged breaths.

"It still does."

Her laughing was cut short by his lips, moving passionately against hers. Both of his hands cupped her face and she sighed into the kiss, responding almost immediately after the initial shock faded. Diaval tasted of grapes; the flavour still lingering on his mouth was intoxicating her slowly. Then she felt him biting gently her lower lip and she just parted her lips a bit wider, granting him the opportunity to explore her mouth. His tongue felt like velvet inside her mouth, his touch soft but yet so strong against her tongue… Where had he learned to kiss like that?

She only parted when she remembered they were at a public place, either way she would've kept going.

"You need to stop doing that" Mal commented after a few seconds of silence.

"Kissing you?" Diaval asked.

"Surprising me. I don't like surprises" and she didn't, lately she wasn't against them, but she still didn't like them. Mal also noticed she had practically given him permission to keep on kissing her.

Diaval came closer to her once again; Mal wondered if he knew what personal space was. Her breath caught up in her throat as she looked into his beautiful dark eyes.

"Perhaps you don't like surprises, but you like me."

She considered him so incredibly conceited she would have slapped him if his words weren't true. This time, when he kissed her, it was gentle and she totally saw it coming. Mal just placed a hand above his heart and smiled slightly when she felt it beating wildly inside his chest –_like a caged bird_, she thought. Diaval sort of groaned then and Mal angled her head to kiss him better, then she felt him smirking against her lips before leaving her.

He had been right. Mal was losing control around him.

"We should do this again someday" Diaval offered.

Mal just let her head fall and clasped her hands "Diaval, we can't. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy spending time with you, but I don't have time for… _this._"

Although he wasn't smiling anymore, the spark in his eyes didn't die. In fact, Mal would say it only grew brighter. "Enlighten me, then. What's stressing you so bad you don't have time for this?"

The glint in his eyes could also be known as stubbornness, determination, persistence… whatever suited the situation best; either way he was making his point even clearer: Diaval still wouldn't take a _no_ for an answer.

Mal decided she wouldn't lie to him this time.

"Aurora's father is back, he wants her custody, Diaval. They've opened a case and I _cannot _risk losing her, I have to focus on her. She means everything to me; I can't lose her to romance."

Anxiety ran through her blood in a total debauchery now, since she couldn't fiddle with her hair, Mal reached for the bag of crackers and pulled its opposite borders to open it; she threw one into her mouth and chewed rapidly to keep her jaws from clenching to the point of hurting her. When she looked at Diaval she saw understanding dawning on him, then he just seemed preoccupied.

"Don't panic, Mal. Everything will be alright," Diaval placed an arm around her shoulders and she rested her head in the crook of his neck while she ate another cracker "I can help you if you let me."

She swallowed "how? This isn't your battle, Diaval."

"I don't really know… But you don't have to do this alone, you know that, right? I'll be right here whenever you need me, just allow me to" Mal felt him pressing a kiss to the top of her forehead.

She didn't say anything, Mal just enjoyed his company and mentally accepted his offer. She had been isolating herself from other people for so long she hardly knew how to be close to someone, but with Diaval –and whatever was going on between them– things were going just fine, she wasn't completely broken yet.

Since she met him she had been contradicting herself constantly, always going back and forth between she either wanted him or not… Mal tried her best to keep him at bay but halted when he tried to get closer and succeeded, was she even trying anymore?

Perhaps tomorrow she would try to shut him out once more and let him in the next second, but in that very moment she felt comfortable with him, she really liked Diaval Blackburn.


	9. The Copying Machine

She hadn't seen Stefan in years.

The last time she had let her eyes rest on him, Stefan had been fooling around with Leila and Mal wasn't fond of that memory at all. Looking into her past, she couldn't believe how stupid she'd been. Much like Aurora, she'd lost her parents but hadn't been lucky enough to find someone to take care of her, so she spent her childhood in several foster homes until she was old enough to get the hell out of there and start looking out for herself without anybody telling her shit about it. Mal guessed it was in her personality, because even though she liked talking to other people she preferred and cherished her time alone. Since she moved a lot between different places, Mal couldn't really afford to get attached to someone, sure, feelings were nice… but they became a pain in the ass when you had to leave the next morning. When she met Leila she'd been happy they weren't that different, this blonde gal with a bubbly personality turned into her best friend effortlessly. That was a kind of love she could get used to and didn't mind to give in return.

But then she met Stefan. The second she saw him she knew there was something off about him, but the electric feeling of attraction refused to go away. Of course she never ever expected Stefan to notice her, Mal was the kind of person who's bound to spend their life watching from the outside and she kept repeating to herself that she was _fine _with it until she wasn't fine anymore.

It only took a five minute conversation to know the kind of man he was. He was dangerous, deceiving and a ladies man… but he was also sexy, interesting and had hypnotic eyes. How could she refuse him? Before she knew what she was doing she handed Stefan her heart on a silver plate, Mal never stopped to think about the consequences, she was in love with that type of love. It never occurred to her that in the end she would be the one pouring every single drop of her soul into a relationship that would never work, that she would be the one who would love what they had for the both of them while he shamelessly scanned another girl's behind on a date. She had tried to look past his flaws until Mal accepted Stefan wasn't flawed, he just didn't love her. Not in the way she loved him, that is.

It broke her heart into a million pieces to acknowledge this simple yet awful truth. She wasn't naïve enough to believe Stefan would become her husband one day, but that didn't stop her from imagining what a future like that would be with him; and she had grown to love those thoughts. Stefan had been her first everything: her first kiss, boyfriend, lover… of course it would hurt like hell to let him go, especially after creating such a perfect fiction of their lives together.

She remembered he used to have his hair long, his eyes sparkled and he shaved so he could use an after shave cologne she had never really liked but he refused to quit. In her mind Stefan still looked like that, he never lost the boyish charm; that's why she couldn't supress the gasp that escaped her at the utter shock that stroke her when she walked into the room where Stefan and his lawyer would be meeting Flittle and her when she saw him. His hair was definitely longer and tied in a ponytail just above the nape of his neck, his previously hairless face was now covered by a beard that resembled the ones from the dwarfs of The Lord of the Rings, his cheeks seemed to be sucked into his face and his eyes lacked of the sparkle she'd once loved. This man before her looked psychotic.

Mal didn't know why they had agreed to meet; she knew they wouldn't come to any agreement and that they were going to waste their time trying to do so. Yet there they were. As usual, Flittle was doing all the talking and she paid attention until she wasn't, too caught up in her thoughts. Thoughts of what would happen if Stefan got the custody.

"Mr. Rex is married. He and his wife can provide Aurora a stable home; given Mrs. Rex does not work, she can stay with the child during the day or on the after school hours, unlike Miss Moore, who hires a nanny that sees the child more than she herself does."

Stefan's lawyer was a woman she didn't get a good vibe from, she disliked her from the very first second she saw her. Redhead, with artificial blue eyes and too much collagen in her lips. But now, Mal _hated _her. Flittle talked before Mal could lean forward and rip the woman's throat apart, simultaneously, Diaval called her.

"Excuse me. I have to take this."

Mal exited the room and went to the hallway; she took a deep breath and then answered.

"_How'd it go?" _Mal's stomach did a backflip at his cheerful tone, she gathered he was only doing it to make her feel better or spare her some courage, but it annoyed her despite his good intentions.

"We're not over yet…" she sighed.

"_Then what are you doing talking to me!? Go back in that room!" _

Mal was suddenly glad she'd finally agreed to give him her number, she actually welcomed his call because it gave her an excuse to get out and relax a bit, shake some stress off her shoulders; Diaval couldn't have had more perfect timing. "I can't. It's hard to breathe in there and–"

"_You should have let me go with you."_ A few nights ago she had told him about this particular meeting and didn't put any effort in hiding how nervous she was. They had been sitting on a couch in her living room with Aurora fast asleep in Mal's lap; Diaval had been caressing her blonde hair all the while. She had regretted breaking their precious bubble with that comment but she couldn't keep it to herself any longer. Against her better judgement, after Diaval had said she didn't have to go through any of this alone, Mal had believed him and wouldn't let him live that one down because she found out she _needed _him. He said to her that he would gladly accompany her and punch Stefan several times if needed to, but Mal had declined his offer and advised him to stick to his usual routine and go to the office instead.

Mal swore she would be fine.

"It's alright, I'll be okay."

"_Call me when it's over, deal?" _his voice had gone from cheerful to weary. She wished she could tell him not to worry, but she herself was in no better mood.

"I will."

She ended the call before Diaval could say anything else and before she could have second thoughts; she pushed the glass door open and went back in.

"It was the office, sorry."

Everyone in the room dismissed her comment as she sat back down; apparently, the one who'd been talking before she interrupted had been Stefan because he seemed to pick up on exactly where he'd left eagerly.

"Look, I am her _father_. I have all the rights to keep her!" he shouted. Mal went back on her seat; Stefan's outburst of anger startled her and at the same time disgusted her. For God's sake, he talked about the beastie as if she were a _thing_. She'd forgotten how explosive he could be and was remembered of how little self-restraint he had when he connected his fists with the surface of the table, making the papers fly a bit over the smooth surface.

"A father who said he didn't want anything to do with the baby, you have _no _right to call yourself that. You just provided sperm" Mal didn't know she'd been the one who said those words until she felt her lips pressing back together after the sentence ended. For whatever long they'd been there, Stefan had not looked at her, not even once; he would glare at Flittle, fix his eyes on his lawyer or even at the wall, but never her… until she spoke. Give or take, it was the first time they sort of talked to each other in years.

This time he shot daggers at her. "Well, I _obviously_ changed my mind" he addressed her as if she had trouble understanding. It made her blood boil; she might be nervous but she wasn't weak. For a split second she turned her head to look at Flittle, her lawyer was shaking her head negatively but Mal could already feel her words building inside her throat; she would choke to death if she kept quiet.

With a smirk on her lips and a defying gleam in her eyes, Mal clasped her hands together and rested her forearms and elbows on the table, then she leaned forward and looked at Stefan straight in the eye. "C'mon _Bauer_," Mal let her lips caress his former last name as it rolled out of her mouth "you're not kidding anyone, change your last name, get married, the fuck you want... but you're still a parasite. Now tell me: why do you really want the custody?"

Like a chain reaction Stefan hopped off his seat and stood up, leaning half of his body forward as he supported his hands on the table, he was practically all over Mal but she didn't move an inch, not even blinked.

"Why do _you_? As far as I know you were repulsed by her! You don't get to fill that empty heart of yours with _my_ daughter, you hear me?" he breathed out.

"_And you won't get to fill your wallet." _Mal hissed, her words poisonous. Mal felt like a Black Mamba about to attack its prey.

"Your client is overstepping the boundaries" Flittle warned the other lawyer, trying to stop them without interrupting directly.

"Yours pushed him" the redhead replied, but grabbed Stefan by the shoulders to make him sit back down anyways. He groaned but let her lead him.

"Give it up, Amalia. I guarantee you, there's no way you can win this."

"Bring on the jury; I'm not afraid of you" Mal spat out.

"You should be."

* * *

The first time they went to court it was settled Aurora would have to spend some time with Stefan, get to know each other since they'd never met before. Mal almost vomited when Stefan introduced himself as Aurora's father, the way her beastie's face lit up and the way she hugged him broke her heart. She couldn't believe the judge had agreed to do this, the jury was crazy… Couldn't they see all Stefan wanted was the money? He didn't love Aurora, he never would.

She also didn't like the fact that he now knew where they lived, he showed up outside her building to pick Aurora up and take her to the ice cream shop or toy stores. Mal didn't like any of it, but there was not a single thing she could do, so she swallowed her annoyance and tried to cope with the situation without punching Stefan's satisfied smile off his face whenever he walked away holding Aurora's hand in his.

That morning he'd done it again, she just watched them go – and it would keep happening for two months because that's what the fucking jury had decided, Mal held more grudges at them than she believed herself capable of. Once more, she texted Valerie she wouldn't need her that day and got a _"that bastard… ok" _for an answer. Mal smiled foolishly at the glowing screen of her phone before throwing it inside her purse and focusing on getting to the office on time. She had always liked the low temperature her working place had, Mal liked that most of the times she needn't take off her blazer, coat or jacket… but lately, things were heating up.

One thing that had always bothered the hell out of her was that given the circumstance of the copying machine being incredibly loud to be out in the open, they had decided to put it in a secluded room at the end of the hall, in other words, incredibly far from her desk. Mal didn't like to waste her time walking back and forth between her office and that fucking room, she usually sent Tiffany to pick up the papers she printed, but since her assistant had sprained her ankle when she missed a step, Mal had to do it herself and would have to keep doing it for God knows how long –not even Tiffany was sure.

Said room was big enough to hold the copying machine, a shell full of papers and three people at most. The door was so heavy Mal had to push it open with the aid of her shoulders, and that proved to be rather difficult on the way out when her hands were full of papers. Other people had the same issue, so it wasn't odd to see two or three people walking together down the hall to help each other carrying the papers or getting the door. Mal had never been one of those though, not until Diaval met her inside that secluded room. The first time she'd been surprised to see him there, then she smiled and waited for the machine to print her documents in amicable silence. Always the gentleman, he got the door for her and as they walked back to their respective spots he talked to her about whatever nonsense he could come up with; it didn't annoy her in the very least and more often than not she was tempted to let out a careless laugh. Then Diaval had to go back on his steps because he'd forgotten to print his own papers, all thanks to her.

The second time it happened she'd been the one who walked in on him. Diaval was cursing out loud as the copying machine almost drowned him with papers.

"_It's gone crazy! I wanted 5 copies, not 50!" _

Mal laughed at his inexperience and helped him cancel the command. Diaval was clearly flustered, and he apologized for making all that paper go to waste, she just stretched her hand to caress his back to soothe him and froze halfway through her action when she felt the warmth of his skin reaching the palm of her hand through the fabric. They'd been close before, but that was the first time they touched in their professional environment. Diaval seemed to be aware of this too because his eyes widened and he went tense under her touch; when she felt his muscles twitch she drew her hand away and let out a nervous giggle.

Yes. She giggled.

"Err… You've got your papers, we should head back."

Mal raised an eyebrow "you mean you got _your _papers…" she corrected him. Diaval sighed and stepped forward as she opened the door for him.

"Stop messing with my head, Mistress."

This time she didn't freeze and stretched her arm all the way to slightly hit him on the shoulder.

The third time they met there she'd had a rough morning because Stefan had been particularly off the hook and said things she didn't want to remember, therefore she'd gone inside that sound-proof room the second she stepped inside the building and began to curse out loud while she copied some reports. Diaval had walked in in the middle of _"slimy motherfucker"._

He hadn't needed to ask who she was swearing on; he just walked up to her and gathered her frame in between his arms. To say she'd been taken aback by the gesture would suffice, but then she just hugged him back and let her forehead rest against his collarbone.

"He said I'm a terrible mother, Diaval…" Mal whispered; she felt his breathing come to a stop after she spoke.

"You didn't believe him." Despite he made it sound like an affirmation, Mal could still detect the small hint of doubt in his voice.

"No, I didn't. But it hurt all the same, not believing him doesn't change the fact that I'm still feeling guilty about the way I acted at first, you know? I made it clear to everybody I didn't want to become Aurora's family and now it's coming back to bite me in the ass…"

"Mal…"

"Diaval, they're not going to take into consideration what I'm doing now, how I feel _now_; they care more about what I did and felt back then. They don't know shit about Stefan and won't question him as he should be questioned because he's the father, because nobody knows what he's been doing and won't bother to dig deeper, you know why? Because it's a lot easier to take things out on me and decide the verdict based on what _I've _been doing, they're putting me to the test while Stefan remains there, untouched because I know they know messing with him means digging into a pile of crap nobody wants to deal with. The legal system here in Ulstead sucks, and even though I'm trying my best not to freak out, I fear he's going to hit me below the belt because that's what he always does…"

The alert the machine was done with the printing cut Mal's stream of words, making her stop suddenly, like she'd been shaken awake from a dream or a nightmare. She wiggled out of Diaval's embrace and turned her back to him to retrieve the still warm sheets of paper. Mal knew it shouldn't happen, venting out her feelings in the office was not something she'd ought to do, but it was freaking Diaval the one she'd just opened up to, doing that with him was becoming an habit she couldn't bring herself to care to stop; she didn't know when exactly, but many aspects of her life had brightened up since she allowed him to get a bit closer to her, some weights on her shoulders seemed to be lighter.

Of course she still shut him out sometimes, whenever he pushed it too far or when she felt like not even him could help her; she knew it hurt him because she tended to do such things when everything was going alright; just when she noticed Diaval's spark of hope that she actually trusted him, Mal did something to show him otherwise. A small part of her whispered she didn't do it on purpose, that it was just her self-preservation instinct kicking in; but then a greater part came in shouting that she knew what she was doing. Somehow Mal believed herself better at dealing with the pain her own mistakes caused than at dealing with the one destiny held on its cards.

It was easier to say you made it happen, she'd done it before. The thing she'd never done before was apologizing for doing it; she never said she was sorry, but she did hug him or kiss him to show him what she felt. Diaval hardly ever put up any resistance, but today she was probably going to need more than just a few kisses. The night before Diaval had gone to her apartment, as usual, he asked about how things with Aurora and Stefan were going. Mal knew Stefan would come to get the beastie the next morning and the awful feeling that fact gave her turned her into a monster, she was so affected by it that she took it out on Diaval.

Starting with "_it's not your problem" _and ending with a _"stop trying to make it work"_, Mal managed to make him angry too. She did nothing to stop him from storming out of her apartment, seconds after he was gone she had the urge to chase him but was stopped when Aurora showed up with a doll in hand and asked for Mal to play with her. Perhaps it wasn't what she wanted to do, but Mal welcomed the change and accepted that playing with her kid was what she needed to be doing. She'd deal with Diaval in the morning… after dealing with Stefan.

Mal didn't know what she was going to do or say, but she could figure it out inside the copying machine's room. She walked past Diaval's office and saw him completely focused on his laptop's screen, his fingers moving on the keyboard so fast she couldn't believe it. When she reached her destination Mal began to think of different ways to apologize without saying she was sorry; she would tell him on her way back. Sighing, Mal pressed on the machine's screen her ID number and waited for the machine to connect with her computer, after ten seconds the documents she'd saved showed up and Mal hit the _start _button.

The printing sounded like hell breaking loose.

It was so loud and she was so deep in her thoughts she didn't hear the door opening. Mal only noticed Diaval was standing in there with her when she felt the familiar heat of his presence lingering in the air about her; she turned around to face a rather serious Diaval, with small bags beneath his eyes. Raising her voice, Mal decided to break the human silence, because the room was filled with the robotic sound of the device behind her.

"Couldn't sleep?" Diaval shook his head negatively "Look, Diaval, I'm–"

"Let me guess, you're sorry. Aren't you?" he bit back.

Mal clenched her fists and looked at him with a melancholic smile "I am…"

Diaval let out a bitter laugh "I am really trying to give you the space and time you need, Amalia. But it's a difficult task when you just give me half the chance to do so. I don't know if I can resist the constant rejection."

So this was it, he'd finally had enough.

"So you're ending whatever this is?" her voice cracked. Mal never gave her voice permission to crack.

"Perhaps –no! Maybe, I –I don't know, Mal. If I had my way, _no_. But things here don't work around what I want, it's about what you want. And I'm not sure you want to be with me, I mean… You just said it, look, we don't even know what we have…"

In that very moment Amalia knew what he was; Diaval was her boyfriend, she wanted him to be. She wanted him.

Yes, they were at work. They could get caught any minute, especially since the copying machine was done printing and whatever they said, if they said it too loud, could now be heard; but Mal didn't mind, she just walked up to him and kissed him like her life were on it.

* * *

**A/N: I'm late, I'm late, I'm late, I know. But soon after I posted _Passion and Love _my dog stepped on my laptop and damaged the keyboard, and since I'm too lazy to remember my password to this site, I just waited to get my laptop back and use my beloved laptop's memory, which is better than mine, to log in.**

**Ahem, do you remember that question or comment I made about the rating going up? Well, mates, THIS is the time to speak up about it. What do you think? Let me know with a review or something!**


	10. Hit Me With Your Best Shot

**A/N: The last reviews did confirm one thing: you got aggressive impulses towards Stefan. And me too, somehow. I'm not a violent person but... Oh, also, there's no sex in this chapter, but you'll get it later.**

**Read and enjoy, people :)**

* * *

They were kissing and his hands were everywhere.

_God._

_He _was everywhere. She could feel him pressing his body against hers, rocking his hips into hers, taste him and smell him… His unique essence snaked into her nostrils and turned her brains into mush. The taste of his tongue was still lingering on her mouth when she put some space between them to breathe.

It was a lie to say she hadn't thought about this before; being aware of the feelings she now harboured for Diaval, plus the fact that she hadn't slept with someone in so long she couldn't even remember her last time… Well, her mind had found the time to think about him in that way, as her lover. It didn't frighten her at all, quite the opposite, she wanted him. But whatever that had been on, was now off. If they were going to have sex, Mal decided, it was _not _going to be in the office. She deserved to be loved right, in a bed, sofa… anywhere private enough. Anywhere but there.

The way Diaval was breathing sent shivers up her spine and Mal knew that if she didn't get the hell out of there in the next ten seconds, she never would.

"People will come to check on us soon, you know?" Diaval's voice was hoarse with desire; the type of desire she was still struggling to push away from her mind and body.

"I know" it was actually painful to step away from him, but she did it anyhow and headed to the copying machine to retrieve the papers she just printed. Mal took a deep breath before turning around to face him, when she did Diaval was already opening the door for her and she didn't think about it twice, in a blink of an eye they were both in the hallway once again, walking back to where they were meant to be.

When she was back in the comfort of her seat and her sight was reduced to the glowing screen of her laptop, Mal felt like a truck had run her over.

_That kiss… Oh God._

Then a window popped into sight. Who'd know Diaval liked to chat?

"_Your place, tonight. Sounds alright to you?"_

Mal smiled, the immediate answer should've been yes but her fingers lingering above the keyboard refused to type. Aurora would be with them, she had Stefan to worry about, and there were new manuscripts demanding her attention. Mal had all the reasons in the world to decline his offer, but they all sounded like pathetic excuses to shield herself from what she really wanted: his company and the chance to make it up to him for always being so blunt and aggressive; those two didn't go well together.

"_Sounds perfect."_

The stupid thought of adding a smiley face to her reply crossed her mind, perhaps that would be pushing it too far. Mal just pressed enter and closed the chat, Diaval didn't send anything else and Mal was now too busy with pending to work to ask him at what time should she be expecting him.

* * *

"You're late."

Mal had been waiting for almost an hour for Stefan to bring Aurora back, it was half past seven and she'd been about to go utterly crazy when she saw his red Ferrari –no wonder why he was currently having troubles with money. Of course she knew Stefan wasn't stupid enough to let something happen to her beastie, it was not convenient to his purposes, but at the same time she didn't look at that possibility like a total foreigner.

"Sorry, _Mally_, lost track of time…"

The only nicknames she had apart from _Mal_, were _Mally_ and _Amy_. The latter didn't bother her because it used to be what her few childhood friends called her, nobody used it nowadays and, therefore, it was a hard nickname to come across. But the first one… that one was Stefan-exclusive. At first she'd loved it, but then she ran away from it like it was the devil itself. She preferred _Mal_, it was a lot more formal, simple and unique.

_Mally _made her sick now.

She didn't take her eyes off of him as he got Aurora out of the car and put her right next to her on the sidewalk; almost like in a reflex move, Mal bent down to pick her up in her arms and held her close to her chest. God, she'd missed her.

"Here I was hoping you would have something to say about it, _Mally_" Stefan smirked in a nauseous kind of way, he was just doing it to piss her off and it was working, but she knew better than to let it show.

"It's no use arguing with stupid people, Stefan. Call me what you may."

Mal turned around to go back into her building when she heard a car parking, turning her head slightly she recognized the vehicle as Diaval's. It was not like she could now go inside in a hurry, enter her apartment, let him in and pretend she hadn't seen him at all; so she stayed there, waiting for him to take the keys from the ignition, open the door and get out.

This whole process seemed to be in slow motion, but when Diaval stood right next to her with a smile on his lips, Stefan spoke.

"Wow, got a new sweetheart?" he asked.

"Hello, Diaval!" Aurora practically flung her arms at him, laughing happily as she usually did when Diaval was around. Diaval, bewildered as he was, just muttered a soft hello before fixing his eyes back on the man who still remained a stranger to him.

"None of your business, okay?" Mal was trying to be polite.

Apparently Stefan refused to let her get away with it. She saw it coming because the way his eyes sparkled were giving his intentions away, she should've gone back inside with Aurora and Diaval that same second, but Mal wasn't quick enough and Stefan, on the other hand, had been way too quick.

"So you let him fuck you with Aurora in the same place?" he snorted. "The jury ain't goin' to like that at all, Mally."

She was too slow again. Before she could even think of a comeback, Diaval's fist had connected with Stefan's jaw, punching him hard enough to draw blood. Stefan seemed to be lost for a moment, the look on his face made it obvious he couldn't believe what had just happened, but after his neurons made synapsis once again –or for the first time–, he fought back. Mal couldn't see where exactly had Stefan hit Diaval, but it sounded awful. Although she wanted to move and stop them her feet didn't move, she was completely paralyzed, the only thing she seemed to be doing right was holding Aurora back from turning her head and watch.

Then Diaval hit Stefan in the ribs, hard enough to leave him breathless, the raw sound of a _crack _shook her awake. Okay, the shock was over. Aurora was there, Diaval was getting hurt… she had to do something now.

"Hey, hey, hey! Enough! Let's go back inside… please…" she was practically juggling with Aurora in one arm and holding Diaval back from going at Stefan once again with the other. She didn't doubt Diaval could take Stefan down, but if her memories of past experiences didn't betray her and she remembered Stefan well enough, Diaval would be going down with him. The former Mr. Bauer was not the type to sink alone, he liked to drag people along "please?" that was enough for Diaval; he wasn't putting up any resistance to her now.

Mal's eyes were fixed on the crouched form of Stefan, busy trying to regain his breath "Go away, Stefan. Now."

With that she hooked her arm into Diaval's and walked him inside, when they reached the elevator she was too busy talking to Aurora to notice him, the girl hadn't seen anything but she wasn't oblivious to what had been going on; she was uneasy. By the time they reached her apartment Mal was thanking God no one else had gotten hurt.

She left Diaval alone in her living room to take care of Aurora, once in the beastie's pink bedroom, Mal let herself relax a bit.

"You okay, darling?" she asked Aurora, who was now busy picking which pyjamas was she to wear that night. The little girl just nodded without looking at her "I'm sorry, I really am…"

Mal's feelings became a tangle of guilt, preoccupation and relief; she could cry right there and not even regret it.

"Are you hungry?"

At the mention of food Aurora turned her head to set her blue orbs on her and Mal thought fixing the girl some dinner was a welcomed distraction.

"Nope. Sleepy…" then she yawned and Mal frowned "I'm tired."

Aurora was big enough to leave diapers and they were slowly succeeding, Mal had discovered something called "pull-ups" and decided they were rather magical. That night, after Aurora had chosen her pyjamas, Mal helped her change into a new pair of pull-up diapers, and change her clothes. The little girl was practically asleep when they finished.

_There goes my intention of asking how her day was…_

After she tucked Aurora into bed and kissed her forehead goodnight, Mal stayed a few more minutes fluttering around the room doing absolutely nothing else but thinking what was she supposed to do now. This little fight of theirs, Mal knew, Stefan was definitely going to bring up later; he had an awesome gift in twisting the information to his own benefit… and still, she got the hunch there was even more to come her way. When she accidentally stepped on one of Aurora's dolls Mal walked out of her room silently.

It hit her like a rock, when she saw him, that Diaval was _there_.

"Fuck," Mal muttered and quickly made her way to him, from afar she could recognize blood stains on his white shirt, but the wound from which said blood came from she couldn't quite see "does it hurt?"

She put both hands under his jaw to move his head comfortably in order to get a better view, under the light of her living room he looked incredibly yellow and pale at the same time; then she noticed he had a busted lip and eyebrow.

"Does it hurt?" she repeated.

"It does…"

When she made sure those were the only injuries in his face, Mal dropped her arms and grabbed his hands, his right knuckles were bleeding and his left hand, although it had no ripped skin, was going to get bruises soon. She knew better than to scold him for acting so mindlessly, but she was angry.

It wasn't at Diaval, perhaps not even at Stefan. Mal just was.

"I don't think you need stitches, but having a doctor checking your face and hand wouldn't be a bad idea."

"I don't need a doctor, but I could use something to relieve the pain. Got anything?" he asked, his voice sounding incredibly tired.

"Advil?" she offered and Diaval nodded in agreement. Mal sprinted to her bedroom, then to her bathroom and opened the cabinet where she kept all the medicines, from cough syrup to the pills she'd bought against her will a few months ago. She grabbed the small container and shook it, by the sound it made she gathered there were only three pills left. Not bothering to check if she'd reckoned things right, she set a quick pace and headed back to where Diaval was waiting for her.

Mal handed him the pills and went to the kitchen to get him a glass of water, when Diaval was done swallowing the medicine she wet a piece of cloth and made him sit down, then she slowly wiped the drying blood from his face. Once he looked decent again, Mal confirmed her previous statement: he didn't need stitches.

"Thank you" Mal leaned into him a barely brushed her lips against his, fearing she might be hurting him despite being careful, Mal broke apart and just stared at him.

"What for?" Diaval's eyes were closed and his head was down.

_What for?_

He had to be kidding.

"Seriously, Diaval? For _everything_," that line worked its magic on him and raised his head to get a proper view of her face, Mal smiled "for being so incredibly patient and putting up with my crap, for caring about Aurora and always being nice to her; I swear that girl loves you, "Mal took his hand in hers "for trying so hard. I'm selfish enough to know I don't deserve you but wanting to keep you all the same. So just thank you, I really appreciate everything you've done for me."

Diaval was silent.

"And for punching Stefan. I've wanted to do that for some time now…" she was really grateful for that too "Where'd you learn to fight like that?"

He let out a sheepish laugh "after you saved my sorry ass in that alley I decided it was never going to happen again. So I took some self-defence lessons and became the new Bruce Lee."

That was her turn to laugh.

"I'm glad I stopped you then."

"So that's _the_ Stefan?" Diaval inquired and she nodded "Isn't he just charming? For fuck's sake, I can't believe those people in the court are actually considering handing him the custody of Aurora. I mean, it doesn't even make sense. He's a total idiot."

"We're lucky they didn't put her back in foster care; they usually do that when similar cases are opened. It's annoying as hell to deal with this, but it's the best we could get…" as if she had x-ray vision, Mal turned her head to look over her shoulder at Aurora's bedroom door and tried to see inside, searching for her beastie.

"It was a pleasure to punch him; but I fear that might represent some trouble for you, won't it?"

_So he thought about it too…_

Suddenly she was too tired to make her brain run that marathon of endless possibilities about what could happen next, the move was already made and now, all she could do was wait. Much like Aurora she just wanted to sleep and forget her worries.

"You hungry?" Mal asked and Diaval answered a hoarse _no_.

"I should leave…" he suggested and began to stand up, she sort of panicked and gripped his wrist like she would fall off a cliff if she let go of him. Diaval just stared back at her with a surprised look on his face.

"Come on. You're hurt, weak and tired. I won't let you drive in these conditions, stay the night" it was the right thing to do, she couldn't let him go.

"Mal…"

"Will you make me beg?"

He sighed "never."

Mal handed him an XL shirt she used to sleep when summer nights were incredibly hot and she couldn't bear to use more layers of fabric than that. She also found a pair of pyjama pants that looked manly enough for him to wear, and they also happened to fit him just fine. When he was done she entered her bathroom to put on her own sleeping outfit: another big but not so big shirt and pair of shorts; she let her hair loose.

She didn't find him in her bedroom and wasn't surprised to see him accommodating in the couch. Mal lent him a pillow and some blankets, when she made sure he was comfortable enough she got in her own bed and tried to get some sleep.

Ironically enough she couldn't. She took a quick peek at her clock and noticed it was just eight thirty. Normally, Mal would throw herself at Orpheus' arms at any time and fall asleep easily, but today was different. Today was too early, her bed was too cold, she was too hot, her room was too dark and her pillows were stiff.

Fighting discomfort away, Mal forced herself to stay in bed and get the freaking sleep she wanted so badly almost twenty minutes ago.

Hours passed… and she kept rolling.

The next time she checked her clock it was 11:37.

Perhaps getting a glass of water would help her. Diaval would probably be asleep, so she tiptoed the whole way until she noticed he was actually sitting on the couch, with his elbows resting on his knees and looking at nothing in particular until he sensed her presence and addressed her.

"Couldn't sleep, did I wake you?"

"No… I –I couldn't sleep either. You want some water? Perhaps something to eat? You _must _be hungry."

Diaval got up and followed her to the kitchen; Mal got them some chocolate chip cookies and tea. While they ate she noticed he looked even worse, bruises were showing now. She asked him if he was in pain and felt a bit better when he answered negatively.

"There's a lawyer I know, he's good. Perhaps he could help you in case Stefan behaves like the princess he is in court" Diaval said out of nowhere.

"Oh no, that's alright. I got Flittle; she knows what she's doing… But thank you" Mal ate another cookie.

"Really?"

"Yeah, I mean… Things are working out rather slowly, but they're working. The only thing that worries me is the fact that I got no way of proving Stefan's true intentions; I don't know shit about him. Flittle said she could come up with something, do some research in the criminal records, read files… Stuff like that, but I doubt that gets us something to work with…" she sighed.

Diaval smirked "I know someone who can help you in that case too, his name's Robin. Friend of mine; he used to play Inspector Gadget and ended up becoming a real detective or private investigator, I don't know. But he can help you, I'm sure."

She said yes immediately.

When they finished their meal Diaval went back to the couch and she to her bedroom. Once again she was having the same difficulties and was about to give up sleeping when she heard a knock on her door.

"Still can't sleep?" she was giving her back to him and didn't turn around when she spoke.

"Still can't sleep."

Without an invitation Diaval crawled into bed with her and placed his body next to hers, pressing his chest to her back. She got goose bumps when he pressed his face to the crook of her neck and for the third time that night she asked him if he was in pain, this time, when he said no, she let him hug her from behind and closed her eyes.

Now everything felt perfect, and she had no trouble falling asleep.


	11. Three Words For You

***comes out of a hole with a white flag* I'm alive, please don't kill me. I KNOW I sort of, well, disappeared but I really didn't mean to. I went back to uni on August 11 and it's amazing how eager teachers are to throw projects, homeworks, exams, quizzes and presentations at you in a matter of days. My life these days has been eating, sleeping and repeating; plus I hadn't been honoured with the presence of my muse until today, you wouldn't believe how big the struggle to write this chapter was for me.**

**But here it is, finally... ALSO for me it's 3 a.m. so I BET there are lots of typos I would probably want to kill myself for making but don't have the energy to mend right now, hopefully what I wrote still makes sense. Ahem, I think I reached that part of the semester when you actually stop giving a fuck so I'll probably update sometime soon.**

**If you didn't notice, the rating has gone up *wink, wink***

**And again, because I was gone for more than a month: I'M SORRY, I LOVE YOU ALL, I'M SORRY, I LOVE YOU ALL.**

* * *

With Robin's help she discovered a couple things that, without his help, she would've never ever noticed… For starters, the man Stefan owed money to was in fact his wife's father. It made sense; he married the daughter of the man who wanted him dead to save his own neck only to find out his now father-in-law still wanted the money. Mal didn't know if Ursula was aware of Stefan's intentions nor if she knew anything at all, but in the depths of her mind that woman had no salvation: she was either incredibly stupid or amazingly evil. Just like her husband.

The only problem was that they didn't have any evidence to back them up. Stefan had been a clever son of a bitch, too clever and left neither a trace nor written document of any queer transaction, and Ursula's father, Henry Knoxville, didn't hate Stefan more than he loved his daughter… In other words, he would never do anything to hurt her so he wouldn't touch Stefan and getting Henry to expose him would mean exposing his own dirty businesses. Nobody won except for Mal and Aurora.

Robin suggested they tried reaching Ursula, turn her against Stefan… but that seemed impossible too since they didn't know where she was at and finding her would take too long, or at least they wouldn't do it before their next meeting with the judge. They could always say they had discovered Stefan didn't use his time to bond with Aurora as he was supposed to and he instead took her to places with playgrounds and bought her stuff. Of course there was nothing wrong with that because that's what many parents did, but in this special case they were actually bound to spend quality time together, and he was doing anything but that.

While Aurora tired herself to death chasing other kids and playing with them, Stefan hit on other women or smoked a cigarette. Mal thought saying this to the judge would only end with Stefan asking for more time with the girl since he was an unexperienced parent and surely, Ulstead's sorry excuse for a legal system, would grant him that time.

So now, with all those thoughts and cul-de-sacs inside her head, Mal watched Aurora sleeping peacefully and wished Leila was still alive. Perhaps Aurora's life wouldn't have been as comfortable since Leila was always struggling with money, but Mal was sure her best friend would've made the little beastie happy for the rest of her life, she had no doubt Leila would've found a way. But then again, none of those things would ever be...

If Leila had survived the accident Mal would've probably forgotten all their past differences and painful memories and just be there for her and her daughter. At that time her heart still held room for forgiveness even though she said otherwise, but after her friend's death she could only hate her even more for leaving her with such a burden, for not taking into consideration how would that impact her life… How could've Leila been so careless?

Mal hated every second of it until she discovered she loved Aurora. Until she found out she couldn't live without her because someone was trying to take her beastie away from her.

That night Mal finally cried for Leila's death and she felt free.

* * *

"You look like hell."

"Good morning to you too, Diaval" she greeted coldly. She hadn't seen him in a week and was glad to see his face was practically completely healed.

He joined her in her way up the building, through the halls and into her office.

"Did you sleep at all?" he asked, this time she heard the concern in his voice.

She had slept, maybe an hour or half an hour… who the hell knew for sure? Whatever much she got of sleep had been enough to make her feel somewhat rested and that was all she cared about. Mal would stick to her routine until she was forced to change her ways or until she felt save enough to start a new one.

"I did."

Diaval grabbed her shoulder and squeezed it softly to make her stop pacing about the office.

"You know you move a lot when you lie?" he smirked and folded his arms above his chest.

"I know you get incredibly giddy when you think you caught me lying…" Mal smirked back "I won't allow that, since I'm not."

Diaval sighed.

"Fine."

The man she was now dating started to make his way out of her office when she suddenly had the urge to tell him the truth, Diaval turned to face her the second he heard her talking once again.

"I barely slept, and I'm incredibly tired, stressed out of my mind and scared half to death. I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know what I'm supposed to do, Diaval. I feel lost and nervous most of the time. Every time I read Aurora a bedtime story I'm terrified that will be the last time, and that thought ruins the moment. Why can't things in my life be easy just for once, huh? Why does it always have to be so hard?"

A part of her couldn't believe she had managed to put her feelings and thoughts into words, there was another part that couldn't believe she had actually gathered enough courage to utter them since she was one to keep her feelings at bay –that was becoming more and more uncommon with Diaval though–, and then, there was this part of her that was incredibly glad she let it out because for the second time in less than two days she felt free again.

Diaval just walked up straight to her and caged her in his arms, hugging her in such a comforting manner Mal thought she was going to melt right then and there. In that moment she didn't care if someone saw them, she just wanted him to keep pressing her against his body.

Eventually he let go of her, reluctantly, but he did. Mal missed his warmth the second his stopped touching her. She fixed her eyes on him and almost told him she loved him… but then she bit her tongue and killed the words before it was too late because it was still too early to tell him that.

So instead she said…

"Dinner tonight?"

And he smiled and nodded his head in agreement before exiting the office for good.

Mal spent her day typing, reading and making phone calls to people she believed she would never meet in person. Sometimes she got curious and wondered what their faces would look like or what could they be doing as they spoke to her, when she was younger that daydreaming had been a problem because it made her lose focus and she had to ask the same questions over and over again until she finally managed to stop her creative mind from taking over or the other person got tired and ended the phone call.

By the time she got home she was feeling less tired due to the indecent amount of coffee she drank during the day, but she figured she still looked like crap because Mrs. Knotgrass, who always seemed to be in a rush when she was out of her apartment, _walked_ her to her door.

"You know, Amalia… Aurora is incredibly energetic today…"

"And how would you know that?"

"Well, darling, I live next door and I hardly ever go out. The little girl has been yelling, jumping, perhaps dancing, and singing all day. I mean, since she got back home" Mrs. Knotgrass scratched the back of her neck and raised her thin eyebrows at her.

In the meantime Mal had found the keys to her apartment and opened the door only to see Aurora using an empty water bottle as a microphone as she sang something Mal had never heard in her life. Valerie was sitting on the couch behind the girl, laughing and encouraging Aurora to go on with the show.

Mal's head began to ache with the idea of having to put up with that for the rest of the night. Once Aurora had her _microphone_ she would encore until Kingdom Come.

"Hey!" Diaval greeted cheerfully from behind her, Mal jumped out of her skin.

"You scared me!" Mal turned to glare at him.

"I'm sorry," he said without really meaning his words, Diaval seemed to be more interested in finding out why both women were standing outside Mal's apartment "isn't she lovely?" he laughed.

"She's…" Mal started but was interrupted by Mrs. Knotgrass.

"She's wearing a tutu now."

"What? When did she get it?" Mal asked horrified.

"Green looks good on her" Diaval added.

"You know, since you have company tonight and you don't look healthy enough to deal with Aurora's sugar rush, perhaps you could leave her with me until she calms down a bit, it's early so I don't mind. My husband is at home and one of my sons has come over, Aurora's going to enjoy playing with our cat, too…" Flora Knotgrass. Mal loved Flora Knotgrass.

"You're too gentle… I could never thank you enough, I mean…"

"Don't worry, dear. Being a single mom is not easy and I crave for grandchildren, this is win-win," the woman smiled "come pick her up when you're ready, okay?"

"Okay."

Aurora walked out her apartment and into Mrs. Knotgrass' happily, swaying with her tutu along the way.

Mal thanked her neighbour once more before going inside and take off her shoes. Diaval suggested they ordered sushi since none of them felt like cooking and she agreed happily. She welcomed Diaval's smooth voice and low tone, and she laughed her lungs out when she saw his horrified face after she told him what _unagi _really was.

"I used to like it."

"I'm sorry," Mal said between laughs "how is it that you've been eating that all this time without knowing what it was?"

"I hardly ever visited my grandmother when I was a kid, but when I did eating was always a nightmare. You know how all kids love their grandmother's food? Well, I was an exception to that rule. She sucked, but I couldn't hurt her not eating. So I decided that as long as it tasted somewhat good and didn't look totally awful, I wouldn't ask what the hell was on my plate and I would just eat it. That habit stayed."

Mal laughed even more and stopped all of a sudden.

"I wonder what else…" she began.

"Don't."

She smiled and took one of her porcelain Japanese cups in her hands, inhaled the aroma of the green tea inside it and took a sip before focusing her eyes back on him. Diaval was currently eating another roll, now avoiding completely the unagi sauce.

"Why don't we ever go to your place?" she asked.

"It's not as nice and comfortable. I got lots of boxes everywhere… papers everywhere… I sleep on the couch because my bed is full of laundry" he explained calmly.

"Wow… Aren't you a messy thing?" Mal thanked he trusted her enough to tell her that romance-killer description of his apartment. Despite it was quite disturbing to imagine his bed, it didn't bother her entirely.

"I would organize everything if I had the energy to do so. But every time I get home I'm too tired or have work to do, life was easier when I just played my guitar for a living. Didn't make much but it was a good life."

Mal cleared her throat.

"Of course I'm not complaining, Mistress. If I hadn't taken this job things between us would be incredibly different, and I love what we have just as it is" he took her hand in his and caressed her palm with his thumb, running it across the smooth surface leisurely.

"Perhaps I could help you to accommodate properly in that jungle of yours, what do you say? Next Sunday?" Mal offered.

"Really? I mean, you just said it, it's a jungle…"

"Yes, I mean it. We just have to give Aurora something to colour or a doll and she'll be happy to stay with us as we fix your mess for as long as it is necessary… Then she'll probably fall asleep."

It was eight o'clock when they were done eating and Diaval thought he should let her rest, so he helped clean up and grabbed his coat before going to the door.

"Thank you for coming" Mal grabbed the lapels of his coat and pressed her forehead to his.

"Thank you for inviting me" Diaval whispered against her lips before capturing them in a tender kiss.

She didn't how, why or when the kiss turned more heated, but Mal found she didn't care. She ran her hands from the lapels of his coat to his shoulders and then to the back of neck, liking the way the soft skin felt against her fingertips. Diaval sighed into the kiss and she took the opportunity to bite his lower lip, then he grunted and placed his hands on her hips, pressing her body closer to his.

They were chest to chest and Mal was busy playing with his hair as she kissed him, Diaval, on the other hand, was busy kissing her and trying to guide them to the couch without making them fall. One they reached their destination he fell on top of her and roughly –she liked that– pushed her knees apart to make more for him. Diaval moved his lips to her neck when they couldn't breathe anymore, kissing and biting just in the right places.

Mal moaned and did her best to rid him of his coat, and then of his shirt. The buttons were proving to be harder than she thought but was incredibly glad when she undid them all in a matter of seconds.

He never stopped kissing her, not even when she slid the shirt off his shoulders and arms.

For some reason his hands were cold, she jumped when he caressed the skin of her stomach and then, when he placed them on her breasts and squeezed, Mal shivered. When he lifted her up to take off her blouse she hooked her legs around his hips and drew him even closer, then, when she believed they couldn't be closer, she ground her hips against his and felt the vibration of his chest as he groaned against her own chest.

Diaval kissed her collarbones, her shoulders and then the tops of her breasts. He slid one strap of her bra down her shoulder and released of her creamy mounds from its prison; before she could do anything Diaval was kissing her breast, sucking and biting and driving her insane while he massaged the other one with his now warmer hand.

When he slid the other strap she was ready for the pleasure his mouth could bring and tried to keep quiet because she knew her neighbours could hear.

She wanted him, God… she wanted him so much.

Mal stretched one hand and snaked it between their bodies, then she cupped him through his slacks for a couple seconds, then he stood up and stretched his hand out for her to take it, which she did immediately.

He guided them to her bedroom and as he undid his belt he never took his sight off her. Mal couldn't believe the lust in his eyes, the way his chest rose and fell with his heavy breathing and it was all because of her. She felt beautiful and powerful when he looked at her like that.

She guessed Diaval wanted her to do the rest because when he was done with his belt he joined her in bed and focused instead on getting of her pants. It was easy.

He caressed her legs, from her ankle to her thigh and then to her hip bones, where he played with the hem of her underwear.

"Diaval…" she sighed.

Then she kissed him fiercely, grabbing him by the neck and tasting his mouth as she somehow removed her underwear with the other hand. She was still wearing her bra, in a miserable way, but she didn't care about that garment. When she finished sliding her undies down her legs she pressed her calves to Diaval's butt and practically mewled.

"I want you" she whispered against his neck.

"You have me" he answered.

Mal didn't wait, she reached down and unzipped his slacks. She couldn't remember anything but the sound of ragged breaths, clothes being discarded and the way Diaval's skin felt against hers.

"Look at me" Diaval said with a hoarse voice. When Mal fixed her eyes on his he entered her, smoothly but firmly. What was air? As he started to move she found it harder and harder to breathe. For God's sake, he was everywhere and he was burning her with his touch. He started out with a slow pace, but then he began to pick up the rhythm of his thrusts, going faster and deeper every single time. Mal just held onto him for dear life, gasping whenever he slid out and crying out when he pushed back in.

More sooner than later she felt it approaching, she was climbing to the stars at an amazing speed and slowing down was not in her plans. Mal lifted her hips in time to meet his thrusts and his movements became sloppy. Then, almost by accident, she angled her hips in a different way and Diaval hit just the right spot to send her over the edge and she screamed.

She came hard and in a matter of seconds Diaval followed her, she felt his release inside of her, filling her up. He was still dealing with some spasms when she spoke.

"I think I might love you, Diaval…" she said as she caressed his back. He tensed for a moment before he fell limp on top of her.

"That's alright. I do love you for sure, Mal" he kissed her neck and let out a throaty laugh. She didn't feel pressured, and his confession didn't change that. Perhaps her mind was still fogged up and she would regret it later, but she loved him and she needed him to know. To hear Diaval saying he loved her back made her heart beat wildly and she held him closer to her, Mal wondered if he could feel her heart going crazy… she could hear the beating in her bloodstream and she felt happy, even if it was just for the night.

They enjoyed the afterglow for a couple minutes before she headed to the shower, she didn't let him join her despite his pleads.

She put on her favourite yoga pants and a sweater before going to Mrs. Knotgrass' apartment to get Aurora. She left Diaval in the shower. Mal greeted Flora's husband and son and then went to get Aurora, who was sleeping soundly on the couch.

"Was she too much trouble?"

"Not at all, we loved having her over. She sang a few more songs, then she ate and watched the news with my husband…"

"She watched the news? But she hates…"

"Poor thing was so tired I don't believe she knew what she was watching, she only lasted ten minutes before falling asleep" Mrs. Knotgrass explained.

"Thank you again" Mal walked to the door with Aurora in her arms and dedicated her neighbour a grateful smile.

"No problem," she replied "and you look so much better now by the way."

She closed the door right after that and Mal walked to her own apartment with a blush spreading from her forehead to her chest. She put Aurora to bed and kissed her goodnight, then she went to her own room and saw Diaval putting on his clothes as he picked up the rest of his garments.

"You're seriously going to leave?"

"I just want to hear you say it, actually" Mal could've slapped the smirk away from his face.

"Stay the night" the words came out rather effortlessly, but she still had to swallow away the pride that was crawling up her throat.

"Yes, Mistress."

"I told you not to call me that."

* * *

**sBerry181 is part responsible for this update since she PM'd me asking for this fic and sort of made me want to write :)**

**Review? (Ugh, I got no shame I know...)**


End file.
